


Self Control

by Cyriae



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesiac Greed, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Humor, The Downsides of Immortality (And What It Brings Along), The Universe Continues To Conspire Against Ling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-08-26 05:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16675498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyriae/pseuds/Cyriae
Summary: Greedling AU where Ling is the one in control from the beginning rather than Greed. Greed still manages to ruin everything.





	1. Get A Hold Of Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> In canon we see Greed holding control of Ling's body for the vast majority of the time, implying he has a huge upper hand in strength or willpower. In this AU, the situation is (nearly) reversed, so Ling's own strength and/or willpower is enough to keep Greed at bay. What follows is Ling and Greed's story changing drastically from what is set down in canon.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ling finds himself newly immortal and endeavors to escape from the ill-intentioned powers that be in Central. Meanwhile, the other voice in his head that came with the philosopher's stone remains mysteriously silent.

Ling began to wake up all at once, the aftershocks of a relentless flood of souls tearing through his body leaving a ringing in his ears. He couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel, there was only the pressing, churning mass of wailing souls- where was he, where was outside, he couldn’t feel his body, what had that face in the souls, that homunculus, Greed, done to him, he wanted, he needed, to see, to breath-

And suddenly he could, he could see, he could feel the ground underneath him again, he could hear, was that Ed? Abruptly aware he was apparently in combat, he rolled to his feet, dodging out of the way of Ed’s metal hand aimed at his face. He started to make out some of Ed’s words through the pounding in his head.

“Down after one punch, Greed? What happened, did being reborn mess you up or something?” Ed started lining up another jab.

Ling’s mind worked double time trying to sort out what was happening; it seemed that Greed had been controlling his body, and been attacking Ed, or more likely visa versa, given what he knew of Ed. He swept his eyes over the rest of the battlefield, there was Envy, and he could see Al, and- was that the scarred Ishvalan from earlier? How did he get here? With a jolt he realized the “Father” homunculus was standing close by, far too close for comfort, but fortunately he seemed to be regarding the other combatants with much greater interest than he was him and Ed.

Ok, ok, he just had to keep the bad guys from realizing Greed wasn’t in control anymore, and where had that guy gone, anyway? Ling couldn’t immediately sense the sin’s face in the anarchy that was currently his mindscape, but he didn’t want to spend too much time and energy on that. He moved to the side and held up an arm to deflect Ed’s next attack and noticed that his hands looked significantly different than last he’d checked.

He groaned internally, this must be the price of being fused with a philosopher’s stone, Gluttony got a freaky stomach-eye-mouth-thing, Envy got to be a Giant Nightmare Monster, and now Ling had some nice grey-black skin and claws. He supposed it could be worse, he could’ve gotten tentacles or something. He just hoped this wasn’t over his whole body, and especially not his face. He felt some relief when he could still see his bangs and feel his ponytail, so at least he still had his hair.

He feinted to draw Ed closer, trying to get a good opportunity to surreptitiously let him know he was still alive and not being piloted by a disembodied, fanged face.

Ed took the bait and closed in. “I know Ling it still in there! Give him his body back!” Well that was convenient timing.

Ling grabbed Ed’s arm and pulled him closer, hissing out, “Ed yes it’s me, Ling! Now start running!”

Ed stood in shock for a second before breaking into a grin. “Ling! I knew it, I knew-“ 

“Yes Ed, it’s Ling, keep trying to punch me!” Ling made a shushing motion and glanced quickly over his shoulder, but fortunately it looked like Father had decided to take a close interest in Scar. “C’mon, trust me! Run and I’ll chase you, you get Al to follow, and we can all get out of here!” He took another swing, forcing Ed to jump back towards the open door.

Ed dodged backwards before nodding, face set with determination, and turned to begin running, looking around for Al. Ling spotted the suit of armor also running towards the door, carrying someone small in his arms, Scar not too far behind. Damn, that meant the Father guy wouldn’t be occupied, Ling picked up his pace, still letting Ed keep a reasonable lead.

He dashed through the door a few steps behind Ed, following until he could see Al and Scar stopped further down the hallway, in front of- that was a lot of chimeras. He approached more slowly, in case the Ishvalan decided to attack, he wouldn’t know Ling wasn’t a threat. He held his hands out in front in a gesture of peace, marred somewhat by the carbon claws still tipping his fingers. How did he turn this off? And was Al carrying a small Xingese girl? Where did she come from?

At least it looked like Ed was explaining, through gritted teeth, Ling’s situation to his brother and the murderous Ishvalan. And not also murdering said man, good sign. Ling felt some large chi presences approaching and turned his head to see Envy and Gluttony at the end of the tunnel. Great. He started slowly advancing in an intimidating fashion to keep up appearances, while keeping his expression facing the humans as cheery as possible. “Hey, guys, do we have a plan? Think we can take these chimeras fast enough?”

“Not without alchemy…” Ed looked frustrated beyond reason.

“I feel so helpless! We need to get this girl to a doctor!” Al looked like he normally did, but Sounded frustrated beyond reason. He turned his helmet to Ling. “Can you take her? They won’t kill us, we’re important, so we can distract the other homunculi if you can-“

“No way I’m going with _him!_ ” The girl spoke in a pained yet still vehement voice, jabbing an angry finger at Ling’s nonplussed face. “He’s the Yao prince! He’ll just leave me to die!”

“Why would I…” Sudden recognition dawned as Ling looked closer at the girl, she was the Chang princess, wasn’t she? Well, that did make things awkward. He continued his slow approach. Was it his imagination, or were the chimeras backing up slightly as he got closer?

Then Scar spoke up. “We are running out of time.” Ling could feel the two homunculi approaching behind him. “I can’t take her and escape through these monsters-“ he indicated the chimera “-but if you are certain your own lives are not in danger, Elrics, I have an idea.”

“Al, why are we listening to this-“

“Shush brother, we need to get her-“

Before the two brothers could argue further, the Ishvalan stuck his hand in the canal, producing a cloud of vapor before turning to deconstruct a pipe from the wall. Ling coughed instinctively from the sudden particulate in the air, before dodging sideways as Al’s helmet sailed past his head to strike against a pipe close to Envy and Gluttony.

The resulting explosion nearly blew him off his feet. He caught himself in time to barely make out what looked like Al helping the girl into his empty torso, that was smart, but risky. It looked like Scar made a break for it in the water while the chimeras milled in confusion, he should probably follow suit-

It took a momentous effort not to roll out of the way as Envy’s limbs shot past him, pinning Ed and a newly re-helmeted Al against the tunnel wall. Be cool, be cool, if he played this right he could-

“Gluttony! Follow him by his scent-!?” Envy’s distorted, booming voice cut off when they noticed their sibling contorting in pain on the ground. “You idiot! You died too much! Greed!” Ling kept a nonchalant expression on his face as Envy turned their monstrous head in his direction. “Go after the Ishvalan! We need him dead!”

Perfect. Ling saluted the homunculus before turning towards the wall of chimeras, surreptitiously giving the Elrics a wink as he passed. Hopefully they’d be able to meet up later. He paused briefly before confidently striding forward, hoping that- Yes! The chimeras parted to let him pass, this was certainly turning out swimmingly. He picked up his pace, beginning to run down the corridor until he could turn a corner, breaking into a flat sprint once he was out of sight.

He couldn’t keep a triumphant grin off his face any longer. He’d done it! He’d gotten a philosopher’s stone, one fused with his very body, no less! With this immortality, he’d be able to claim the throne no problem. Now he just needed to find Lan Fan and Fu, and they could get out of this awful country. The doctor had said he was taking Lan Fan for medical treatment, he bet he’d taken her to Central, that was the nearest city big enough to have a hospital anyway. She should still be in the city; he’d be able to find her in no time.

If he’d had a mirror, he might have noticed that his gleeful smile was somewhat sharper than it used to be. He couldn’t help chuckling quietly to himself as he began searching for a way to street level; things were finally looking up.

~~~

Who designed these tunnels, anyway? Ling wouldn’t be surprised if Amestris just didn’t have any civil engineers. This many haphazard pipes _couldn’t_ be safe, although he supposed normal people probably didn’t come down here very often and live to tell the tale, for unrelated reasons.

He could tell he was at least getting closer to the surface; he’d left the Chimera Zone a while ago and could feel Central City citizens’ chi getting stronger. He wasn’t even sure what time of day it was, last time he’d seen the sky had been shortly before being transported to an extradimensional hell plane. It had been night then, but time gets a little screwy when you’re sloshing through an endless mire of rotten blood.

He finally started seeing sewer access ladders leading to manholes, and selected one that sounded like it was under an out-of-the-way side street. He cautiously raised the lid, squinting (more than usual) at the sunlight. He considered staying underground until nighttime, but that’s where the homunculi would probably look for him first when “Greed” didn’t come back. Seeing no one around, he pulled himself up to street level, closing the metal cover behind him and beginning to walk like he knew where he was going.

All right, first order of business: food. Wait, maybe clean clothes, he both looked and smelled like he’d taken a bath in a sewer filled with blood. Tasting some water on the air, he turned a corner and spied some streaming from a leaky pipe behind some factory business. Perfect. As he got closer, he realized the water was a little hot, probably boiling hot, judging by the steam, but wasn’t he immortal now? And hot water would get his clothes clean in no time.

He cautiously put a hand under the stream before remembering his hands up to his shoulders were even more immortal than the rest of him; he could barely feel the heat. Curious, he cautiously poked at his face, but fortunately it didn’t feel like this hardened skin extended there, that was a relief. He should probably invest in some gloves, though.

He stuck an experimental leg under the boiling stream and winced at the pain, before withdrawing and feeling the pain diminish nearly instantly to nothing. Hell yeah. Taking a deep breath, he stood directly in the stream, hunching over at the boiling water spraying against his protesting skin, marveling as he could feel the burns healing as fast as they formed. After an impromptu shower, he took off his coat and held it up to the stream, getting the last of the blood out.

He wrung the water out of his coat and ponytail best he could with his claws before donning his much cleaner coat. Now freshly bathed, he inspected the walls of the alley, itching to get to the roofs again. He’d be able to travel faster and sneakier up there. He leapt upwards, scaling the walls, finding that his new hands made gripping solid stone a lot easier; at least they were good for something.

He scurried over the rooftops of Central, staying out of sight with practiced ease as he kept an eye and a nose out for a street market he could “patronize.”

A short while and a few clandestine forays later, he sat in the middle of a rooftop munching on some fried pastry and inspecting the pairs of gloves he’d managed to snag. He was realizing that having very pointy bits on the end of his fingers might not keep gloves in good condition for long, but at least the gloves would make his hands look somewhat more normal. Finishing his 5th pastry, he pulled on a pair of simple black gloves, careful not to jam his new enhanced nails through the fingertips.

Ling paused as he pulled on the left glove, inspecting the red symbol on the back of his hand he’d not previously noticed. Well it looked like he was in the ouroboros club now, all the more reason to keep gloves on. Speaking of said club, the continuing radio silence from the being calling itself Greed was starting to make him nervous.

Last he’d seen, the monstrous face had been yelling something about if Ling was “prepared enough” or something (well it looked like he was, so Ha), before everything had gone dark and confusing, with the raging and pounding of the tormented souls obliterating everything else from his mind. So, what had happened? The sin had clearly been controlling his body, where did he go? Ling couldn’t hear anything behind his eyes except the endless wails of the lost souls; that was going to take some getting used to.

He wasn’t keen to try “poking around” in his new and oh so exciting mindscape, remembering the souls that tore through, not his “body,” but maybe the representation of his own soul; that hadn’t been fun. Maybe biting one in half had shown them who’s boss. “Hey Greed, are you there?” he muttered aloud. No response. “So you didn’t like my body after all? More immortality for me, then!” Still nothing.

After a few moments he let out his breath; maybe the homunculus was gone, destroyed or lost in the souls. Ling smiled. Not only had the Father homunculus just handed him a philosopher’s stone on a silver platter, he’d managed to make it free of his minion’s influence. Immortality, no strings attached.

So, what did that mean, did he even need to eat anymore? He frowned a little at the thought, but he was still Able to eat, it seemed like, so at least he could continue to do so whenever it struck his fancy. What about sleep? He sure felt invigorated, this might have been the best he’d _ever_ felt, a welcome change from his 18 shattered ribs in the recent past. He wasn’t sure he wanted to try sleeping, the maelstrom of souls was a little too loud in his ears, and he didn’t want to risk following the homunculus’s lead and drowning in souls.

Ling figured he’d try to hold off until he could find someone he trusted to wake him up in case he lost himself. And who knows, he might not even need to sleep. For now, he needed to find Lan Fan. He stood up, letting the dragon’s pulse flow through his awareness, searching for his retainer’s familiar chi. The vortex behind his eyes made it harder to feel the flow of energy, but this was enough to get by. Central wasn’t _that_ big, he’d find her eventually, he was sure. He set off across the rooftops, beginning a broad sweep around the circular city.

~~~

Ok maybe this city was bigger than anticipated. Having a decreased effective range in his chi radar probably wasn’t helping either, but even so Ling hadn’t expected to spend more than a day searching. He was tempted to go bother the Elric brothers for her location, but they would probably be under government surveillance, now more than ever if they were being let free to walk around after learning the country’s darkest secrets.

He’d spotted them earlier, making a phone call not far from the Central military headquarters, so at least he knew they were alive. Maybe he’d give it a few more days, let everything settle down, before trying to make contact again. Although by then the creepy powers that be might be looking for _him._

Fu should be back in town soon too, he should be able to help find his missing retainer. His _injured,_ missing retainer. At least now her sacrifice hadn’t been in vain, he’d managed to succeed beyond all their wildest dreams. He had the power to return the favor and protect _her_ now, protect Fu, the rest of his clan.

He closed his eyes and savored the evening breeze on his face. The endgame was approaching; he only needed to collect his retainers, and then they could journey back Xing and he could claim his place as emperor. His clan would be safe, secure in its power, and his country wouldn’t fall to civil war. He’d gotten the solution.

He opened his eyes and set off across the rooftops again, honing in on his mission with laser-like intensity, pausing only to snag a bag of day old potpies out of a bakery dumpster.

~~~

Ling knelt on a bathhouse rooftop, massaging his temples. It seemed even with an immortal body three days without sleep was pushing it, and that wasn’t even counting however long he’d spent without rest in Gluttony’s gate. He’d hoped that the soothing steam from the bath vents would help stave off his growing headache, but no such luck. He was beginning to worry he’d missed Lan Fan’s chi in the knotted mass of energy both inside and outside his head; why did he have to lose her in the place with the largest stagnant pool of chi he’d ever seen?

It didn’t help he needed to stay out of sight, plus avoid the strange chi fluctuations that seemed to appear at random. They’d felt like the homunculi felt, but the few times Ling had eyes on where the movement was, he hadn’t seen any creature, human or not. Was this some other homunculus, somehow capable of invisibility? Or teleportation? Or just random artifacts in the dragon’s pulse that came from being above a philosopher’s stone that may house the remains of the entire lost civilization of Xerxes? Either way he’d taken care to stay far out of the way of the aberrant chi, which unfortunately further complicated his search.

He was getting desperate enough to risk paying the Fullmetal Alchemist (and his room service menu) a visit. Making a decision, he gazed over the city, orienting himself before beginning his trek to Ed’s hotel. He was still some way out when he felt a quick-moving chi on the edge of his range, just barely perceptible over his internal noise. Was it one of the anomalies he’d felt earlier? It was getting closer, clearer- Fu!

Ling pulled a hard U-turn, dashing towards his retainer. Fu had found him! This was perfect, they could go get Lan Fan and-

He lurched sideways to dodge a kunai aimed for his face, screeching to a halt next to where it had embedded itself in a chimney. What-?!

“So, you knew I was there, Monster? Be warned, I will not make this easy for you.” The Yao Clan protector’s stern voice rang out across the rooftop.

Ling stood frozen for an instant before realizing, oh right, he probably felt exactly like the undying monstrosities they’d all fought. He stepped into the dim moonlight, holding his hands in front of him, and called out to Fu in their native language. “Fu! It’s me! Your prince! I know my chi doesn’t feel like it but I swear on my ancestors-“

Fu appeared in front of him, eyes wide as he intently inspected Ling’s face. A moment later he sank to his knees. “Young Lord, forgive me. Your chi, it’s like those monsters now. What happened? Where is Lan Fan?”

“Fu, I have succeeded! They gave me a philosopher’s stone! The leader of the monsters, he dwells under the Amestrian headquarters, he just handed me one! They sought to turn me into a servant of the enemy, but I beat them!” He gripped Fu’s shoulders. “I’m immortal now, Fu! We did it!”

The old retainer gaped in a rare show of wonder. “Young Lord, you… you mean…”

“I mean we won, Fu. We can return home, and our country will soon have a new emperor.” Ling grinned. “A _Yao_ Emperor. We just need to find Lan Fan and we can leave this cursed place!”

Fu pushed himself to his feet but turned to look at Ling at his last statement. “You don’t know where she is?”

“We got separated!”

“You didn’t get arrested again, did you?”

“No!” Ling sounded slightly defensive. “There was a homunculus, you know the fat one, and we captured him, but Lan Fan sacrificed her arm fighting against the leader of this country, saving my life! He’s also a homunculus, the leader! This whole place is run by monsters, Fu! And then we all went to a safehouse outside the city, and Colonel Mustang, you know, the Flame Colonel, brought a doctor to look after Lan Fan, but then the monster escaped! And another one showed up, the one that can change forms, and then the fat homunculus, he, uh, you know what it’s a long story, I’ll fill you in later.” He breezed past the uniquely unpleasant parts of the story. “But! At the end of it we both came to Central City separately, and I got this philosopher’s stone,” he placed a hand on his chest, “and I was just going to pay the Elrics a visit to find her!”

Fu, having gone pale at the mention of Lan Fan's injury, took a measured breath, looking like he was repressing some questions with more difficulty than normal. “Very well, Young Lord. You lead.”

Ling nodded, smiling, and they set off again. He relaxed slightly; this was a welcome development, and soon they would all be able to leave this place together.

~~~

Ling brought his retainer up to speed on the likely enemy surveillance of the Elrics’ hotel, and the need for (more) secrecy than normal. They found Ed’s window and made their way inside, Ling opening the window with practiced ease. Aww, how considerate, Ed left it unlocked! Shoes in hand, Ling poked around for the room service menu, but it looked like Ed had hidden it somewhere. Rude. Ah well, he could remember it well enough, and-

“<Young Lord, they will know you are here if you order your usual amount of food.>” Seems Fu had guessed his thoughts.

Ling sighed dejectedly. “<I gueeesssss.>” He joined Fu on the bed, opting for a more relaxed position than his retainer’s ominous stare at the door. After an hour or so of comfortable silence (he did nearly drift off a few times though, he needed to watch that) Ling perked up, sensing Ed’s presence in the building.

A moment later the door opened, and Ling launched himself forward. “Ed! I’m so glad to see you!” He glomped on to the shorter boy, pinning his arms and knocking him backwards into the suit of armor filling the doorway.

“GYAAAH! WHAT! WHO-?!” Ed struggled to bring his arms into a combat pose in Ling’s vicelike grip. After a second, he seemed to recognize his attacker. “LING! DON’T DO THAT, YOU SQUINTY BASTARD!” Ed continued to squirm, attempting to pull away from Ling’s face smushed into his shoulder.

“I knew you’d be happy to see me! Hello Al!” Ling turned to greet the younger Elric.

“Ah! Hello Ling! Are you uh, all right? After everything that happened?” Al attempted to squeeze around the attacker and victim in the doorway and failed miserably.

“Never better!” Ling gave his trademark smile. Ed had gotten an arm free and started repeatedly clonking it against Ling’s head. “Looks like you guys made it out fine too?”

“Nrgggyes we did,” Ed grunted, finally slipping free of Ling’s grip and leaving him hugging empty air on the floor. “Well, mostly. Bastards are keeping their fingers on some pressure points, for sure,” Ed continued, expression darkening.

Ling bounced to his feet, nodding; he understood when blackmail was at work. “So where’s Lan Fan, where did the doctor take her? Is she ok?”

Ed brushed himself off. “Yeah she should be fine. We can take you to her, it’s a ways though. Do you think you could follow if we took a cab?”

“What kind of question is that? Your city planning is so bad we could leave twenty minutes after you and still catch up in two!” Ling reconsidered. “Unless you’re traveling only on the like, eight roads that go in the same direction for more than a block.”

Ed nodded, then crossed his arms, brows knitting together. “Ling, what… happened back there, in that Father guy’s lair? You survived the stone, but it was Greed talking, and then when I was fighting him he collapsed, and then it was you again.” He hesitated. “So, is he gone? Did you kill him?”

Ling ignored Fu’s pointed stares, shooting an “<I’ll explain later>” out of the corner of his mouth in Xingese. He rubbed his forehead. “Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what happened, but once I woke up fighting you he was gone, and I haven’t seen or heard him since. I don’t think he’s the type to lay low and hide, he seems like a pretty vocal guy.” He raised an eyebrow at Ed. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? You’d met this ‘Greed’ before, right?”

Ed and Al shared a look. Ed sat down on one of the room’s chairs, and Al followed suit with a clank. “Yeah we met him. He’d left the other homunculi and was hanging out at a bar in Dublith. He decided to kidnap Al and hurt our teacher, so I can’t say we were on the best terms,” Ed explained through clenched teeth. “He did have some information I might want, so if he was still around… Eh, he didn’t seem to remember that time anyway.” He waved dismissively.

Ling leaned forward in interest. “He kidnapped Al? What did he want?”

Ed laughed. “The same thing you wanted from Al when you found out about him: immortality.”

Ling stared blankly. “But… isn’t… Aren’t homunculi immortal?”

“Yeah I guess,” Ed threw up his hands, “I didn’t really understand it either.”

Al chimed in. “I think he wanted ‘true’ immortality, because even homunculi can be killed if you destroy their bodies enough times.” He shrugged. “And for _some_ reason people keep thinking that ‘disembodied soul in a suit of armor’ is the way to go for that.” His metallic voice colored with a bit of resentment.

Ling was awkwardly aware that both parts of Al’s statements applied to him now. He was still unclear on a couple points, however. “So, if this guy was in Dublith, away from the rest of the homunculi, how did _I_ end up with his philosopher’s stone?”

Ed grimaced at that, and Al looked away, staring intently at the wall, fists clenched. Ed spoke in a low voice, “King Bradley showed up and cleaned out the place, and must’ve taken Greed back to Central to his _Father_ ,” Ed finished with disgust. “I don’t know how Greed’s stone got back… _in_ that creep, and I _don’t_ want to, but yeah…” He trailed off.

Al hadn’t moved, and Ling was under the impression he was fighting some very painful memories. Must’ve been fun. “Well this ‘Greed’ sounds like a great guy, too bad he’s gone now, I’m sure we’d have gotten along great!”

“Pft, yeah you would have, actually. You both set your minions to attack Al and me the first time we met,” Ed smirked.

Ling laughed at that. “Well that turned out fine, didn’t it? Here we are!” He paused a beat before gesturing at the window. “So how about you lead the way to my injured retainer?”

Ed nodded, standing up and stretching. “Sure.” He paused, eyes narrowing in suspicion.  “You didn’t order any room service, did you?”

Ling held up his hands. “Not one boiled egg! On my honor!”

Ed narrowed his eyes at Ling’s innocent expression. “Oookay I _believe_ you… We’ll get the cab out front, and we’ll be heading East. We’ll get out of the cab a few blocks away and walk the rest. Meet you there?” He looked back at Ling, but seemed to notice something. “And you’re sure you’re ok? You look like you haven’t slept for a week.”

“Sounds good! Don’t worry about me, I feel fine,” Ling lied, dismissing Ed’s concerns. “Oh and what did you tell Lan Fan about what, ah, happened to me?” Ling asked with some slight trepidation.

Ed rubbed the back of his head. “We just said that you’d been captured and escaped, and that we hadn’t seen you.”

“We didn’t know what your whole situation was, so we didn’t want to give her false hope if something… happened,” Al added.

Ling nodded, at least he got to explain on his own terms now. “I suppose that’s fine. Well, lead the way! We’ll be watching,” he grinned. Ed did a double take, staring at something on Ling’s face. Did he have something in his teeth? He waved goodbye, and he and Fu stood up to make their exit via window, at a much lower velocity than Ling usually left the Elrics’ room. Ed closed the window behind them, and Ling could feel the brothers begin making their way to the front of the building. Ling took a deep breath, the cool night air reinvigorating his flagging stamina; his search was almost over.

~~~

Ling waited in the shadows a few houses down; it was decided that Fu would go first to explain Ling’s new chi presence to Lan Fan, to avoid a repeat of the rooftop scene. Finally, Fu’s face appeared briefly at a window, and Ling zipped to the front door, using all his control to not clamber through said window instead.

The same surly doctor from the safe house opened the door, letting Ling inside to where Lan Fan was huddled on the couch. She sat up when he walked in, looking at him with wide eyes. “<Young Lord, your chi… Is it true? You found a stone?>”

Ling came forward and knelt in front of her, clasping her hand in both of his own, careful not to injure her with his unfamiliar claws. “<We have succeeded, Lan Fan. We have found the secret to immortality.>” He reached out and touched her empty sleeve. “<Your sacrifice bought us so much. Thank you, Lan Fan. Because of you, we can return home in triumph.>”

Lan Fan’s eyes shone in the light. Too overcome to speak, she held her fist to her chest and bowed in reply.

Ling stood back up. “<And don’t worry, I’ll tell you the whole story on the road! Fu’s had to wait too,>” he joked.

“Speaking of the road, we should get moving soon, Young Lord,” Fu suggested.

“Excellent idea, Lan Fan and I are probably wanted by the shadow government now, huh?” How to get Lan Fan out of the city in her condition, though?

Ed interrupted Ling’s thoughts, “Oh yeah, we promised to introduce Lan Fan to a mechanic for her arm!” He turned to grin at Ling. “Winry can set her up real well, and I can get her to give a nice discount!”

“Hmmm that’s a generous offer, but I recall you saying something about ‘pressure points,’ yes? She wouldn’t happen to be one of those the government is using, would she?” When Ed didn’t reply, Ling gave a rueful smile. “It would be rather rude of us to put her in more danger, then.”

“The enemy knows too many of our faces,” Lan Fan scowled.

Al turned to his brother. “What about Granny?”

Ed smacked his palm. “That would work! Winry’s grandmother lives in the countryside of Resembool, far from military eyes! You wouldn’t attract attention there.”

Ling shook his head. “Your offer is very kind, but if your government knows about Winry, who’s to say they won’t be watching her grandmother as well? And besides, we need to get back to Xing as quickly as possible.”

“What? You’re leaving Amestris?” Ed looked startled. “But what about the homunculi? The military plot?”

“Sorry Ed, my country has its own problems, as much as I want to help with yours.”

Ed looked crestfallen for a moment before protesting. “I feed you my shoe and this is how you repay me?”

“You ate his shoe?” Fu looked deeply alarmed.

“Don’t worry, it’s part of that ‘long story’ I’m going to tell you about,” Ling placated his retainer.

“If you don’t mind me being so bold, what situation could possibly warrant _that,_ Young Lord?”

Ling shifted sheepishly. “I was hungry?”

Fu sighed but made no more comment. Ling turned back to Ed. “Again, I truly am sorry, but I have people waiting for me, people I owe it to-“ he glanced at Lan Fan “-to return home and finish what I started. But we do need to find some way to leave the city undetected.” He rubbed a gloved hand on his chin, looking thoughtfully at Fu’s very Xingese clothing and his own half-Xingese, half-Amestrian outfit.

“I might have some clothing you can borrow, if you need.” The doctor’s gruff voice came from the back of the room.

“Would you, Dr. Knox?” Lan Fan asked. “But, would any of it fit?” The doctor had quite a different frame from any of them.

“Yeah, I might have some of my wife and son’s old clothes,” Dr. Knox muttered, almost too quiet to hear. “Hell, some of _my_ old clothes might fit you,” he jerked a thumb at Ling, “and Lord knows I won’t use them.”

Fu brought his hands together and bowed in thanks. “That would be much appreciated, Doctor. We would be very grateful for your help.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dr. Knox said dismissively, “just come back here, I can show you what I have.”

Ling followed Fu and the doctor to a dingy side room, the closet stuffed with dusty clothes and equally dusty boxes filling the corners. The doctor picked up a box. “Some of my wife’s coats are in here, I’ll take them to the young lady.” He nudged another box with his foot. “Some of my son’s clothes are in there, and my old stuff is hanging in the closet.” He jerked his head to the dusty hangers. “Help yourself.” He left, leaving a lingering trail of cigarette smoke.

Fu opened the box and began rummaging around, so Ling went over to the closet and started flipping through the dusty outfits. Ugh, Amestrian clothing was all so severe, so straight cut and confining, didn’t they care about comfort at all? Oho, what’s this? He pulled out an eye-wateringly yellow vest and shook the dust off.

“<Young Lord, we are trying to _avoid_ attention,>” Fu spoke up behind him.

“<I guess,>” Ling sighed. He glumly returned the cheery vest to the closet and thumbed through the other outfits. After a bit he walked out to rejoin the rest of the group in thoroughly Amestrian style, with a burgundy vest over the white button-up Mustang had provided, plus black slacks and shoes that fit reasonably well. He shrugged into the black coat he’d also gotten from Mustang, quirking a smile; he’d already been through a lot with this coat.

He twirled a black cabbie from the box of hats Dr. Knox had brought in for him and Fu; he was already fidgety under these starched layers. Amestrians just loved pain and suffering, didn’t they. He’d adamantly refused Fu’s persistent efforts to get him to wear any sort of tie. He didn’t care if it would make him blend in better, he would rather die than wear the cursed Satin Noose. Fu followed, dressed in another coat-vest-button-up combo he’d gotten from Dr. Knox’s son’s clothing, carrying his hat of choice, a fedora.

Lan Fan sat on the couch again, having traded her Flame Colonel-issued coat and shirt for a slightly too-big black women's coat and long-sleeved shirt. She looked up from single-handedly lacing some woman’s heels, nodding to her prince. Fu began tucking their Xingese clothing into a travel bundle, and Ling looked wistfully after his nice, loose, comfortable pants as they disappeared from view.

Ed leaned against a wall next to his brother, looking dejected. “Are you sure you need to leave?”

“Hey,” Ling smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to tell the tale of ‘How I Ate An Alchemist’s Shoe’ at my coronation, friend.” He became more serious. “But I meant what I said before, this isn’t my country, and I need to look after my own. But I _also_ stand by what else I said. This is _your_ country-“ he jabbed a gloved finger at Ed’s chest “-full of people you care about. You have a lot of strong friends, Ed. You can pull through this. Save your country. Get your bodies back. We’ll be waiting to hear how it went.” He smiled and offered his fist.

Ed still didn’t look happy, but he nodded and tapped his automail against Ling’s hand. The resultant _clunk_ was much louder than expected, and Ed looked at Ling’s hand in mild bewilderment, tapping his fist again to make sure he hadn’t imagined it.

“Ling, are you using Greed’s shield?”

“Maybe?” Ling looked sheepish again. “I, ah, can’t figure out how to turn it off.”  

“Young Lord, what is this shield-??”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine, I’ll explain on the road.” He waved flippantly at Lan Fan’s questions. He was ready to get out of the city and somewhere he could put on his usual pants, Amestrian clothing was so confining. He smushed the cabbie over his unruly bangs and grabbed one of the travel packs before turning back to Ed and Al. “Until we meet again, my friends.” He held a hand vertical at his chest and inclined his head.

“Tch, you’re so cheesy!” Ed frowned, arms crossed.

“Bye! Good luck becoming emperor!” Al waved.

Fu, having finished buttoning up his vest, turned to the doctor watching the goodbye proceedings. “Thank you for taking care of my granddaughter,” he bowed.

The doctor blustered around his cigarette. “Don’t thank me, I don’t deserve that kind of talk!”

Ling joined Fu. “It sounds like you saved my retainer’s life, Doctor, and for that I am in your debt.” Fu shot him a glance at that, but remained silent.

Lan Fan softly spoke from the side. “Thank you, Dr. Knox.”

The doctor stared for a moment before waving furiously, ranting about kicking them out, but Ling caught Lan Fan and Ed’s small smiles; this man must really be a big softie. Once out the door, Ling turned back to raise a fist in solidarity, and the Elrics returned the gesture. Ling faced forward again and set off with his retainers; they had a city to escape and a country to claim.

~~~

Leaving Central had been a simple matter of taking a cab to just outside one of the little satellite towns and then heading into the surrounding woods. As soon as they were out of sight of civilization, Ling paused behind a tree to cast off the suffocating Amestrian style pants and vest, slipping back into his loose, comfortable, _sensible_ pants and shoes and unbuttoning Mustang’s white shirt to hang open under his coat. Much better. He reconvened with his retainers, and they went over their plan.

“I’ll meet with my contact to secure our transportation at the border,” Fu tilted his head to the little outpost, “and I will meet up with you on the third hill.” Ling nodded and turned as Fu began to make his way to the small cluster of lights, regarding the darkened hills some ways off, far enough that Central forces wouldn’t be patrolling, but close enough to several convenient transportation hubs for the future.

He and Lan Fan set off, eager to put some distance between themselves and their unnatural adversaries in the city. They made good time to the hill, but the trek took a lot out of Lan Fan, and come to think of it, nearly five days without sleep wasn’t treating Ling too well either, immortal body or no. They found an easily defensible tree and sank to the ground at the base, resting in silence for a bit, Ling having finished telling his story on the walk over.

“You should sleep, you are still healing,” Ling spoke after a moment. His retainer probably needed the sleep more than he did. Probably.

Lan Fan nodded, pulling her coat around herself as she curled up on the ground. Ling sat with his back against the tree, letting his mind drift with the dragon’s pulse as he waited to feel Fu’s return.

~~~

Greed was annoyed. He’d existed for all of two minutes before being relegated to some sort of mental dungeon. At first, he’d thought the blond kid’s punch had killed him (temporarily, of course), but when he hadn’t recovered, Greed was forced to realize something else was keeping him from using his body. Was it that other kid? The one who’d been in here yelling about power with an impressive amount of avarice himself? Greed groaned. Don’t tell him he’d somehow been beat by a _human_ , a kid no less. This wasn’t fun, he’d been having the most enjoyable fight with the short blond shouty alchemist, and now he couldn’t do _anything._

He’d yelled in indignation for a while, but either the kid was ignoring him or couldn’t hear him. After a while he’d just tried pushing his will against the barriers surrounding his consciousness, occasionally testing out his new vocabulary with colorful swears.

He wasn’t even sure how much time was passing, his reference had been shaky to begin with, and now being cut off from all his senses did not help. This was worse than not existing, at least then he hadn’t been **bored.** Then all at once the barriers started melting away. What was this? He looked around the mindscape, spotting the brat whose body he’d taken laying horizontal in a space in his souls. Was he dead? Had Greed’s continuous pounding against his mind destroyed him? No, the kid would probably disappear if he died, right? Maybe he was just partially dead?

Greed hovered over the kid’s unmoving form, debating trying to get him to respond to something. **_Hey kid, what are you doing?_** The brat stirred slightly but didn’t open his eyes. All right then, probably not dead, and also not confining Greed to a mental jailcell, so he wasn’t going to complain. Maybe the twerp had exhausted his soul’s energy trying to keep Greed imprisoned; served him right, this was _Greed’s_ body now anyway, the kid had given it over, fair and square!

Well, time to take back what was his. With the kid out of the way, it was simple to step back into control, and Greed eagerly opened his eyes. Aw, it was dark. Where were the lights- wait, he wasn’t inside. That meant it was, uh, Night, yeah, and these were, uhh trees, that’s the word. He idly gazed at what he could see of his surroundings in the dim light, undertaking the new task of connecting the vocabulary words tumbling around in his head to their real counterparts, pleasantly surprised that he did in fact Know Things. What a guy that Father was, creating him _and_ giving him knowledge.

Speaking of Father, he supposed he should try to get back to him from wherever this brat had taken Greed’s body. He moved to stand up, pausing when he noticed his arms were still shielded. Interesting, the kid must like his shield then. Well, not much use for it now. He dismissed it with a mental command, feeling the layer of carbon dissolve down his arms. He held up his hands, inspecting his new gloves. Not bad, maybe this kid had some taste. Too bad they covered up his tattoo.

He pulled the gloves off and shoved them in his coat pocket as he stood up. The coat was nice too, but he wasn’t sure he was feeling the whole “open shirt” look, a coat like this needed something complementary underneath. The white shirt would do for now, he supposed, buttoning it. The pants were a whole ‘nother thing _entirely,_ what was this kid doing walking around like this? And these shoes? Absolutely no flair. He’d have to fix that as soon as he got back to Father.

Hearing movement, he peered through the darkness to see what looked like someone laying on the ground, wrapped in a coat. They also seemed to be doing poorly, breathing shallowly, and as they shifted, he could see they were missing an entire arm. Right, humans were inferior, so their regeneration must be super slow. “Hey, what’s the matter with you?” He looked closer, was she a girl?

She didn’t open her eyes, just vaguely muttered something in what sounded like a foreign language. She was probably fine. Maybe humans just all went really weak at night. Well, he should get back to Father. He looked around blankly for a few moments, trying to decide which direction Father _was,_ before picking one that seemed to have some lights off in the distance. Maybe Father was over there. He hoped so, he had some questions, like where he could get more stuff. He walked off into the trees, leaving the girl in fitful sleep on the ground behind him.


	2. Self Restraint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ling and Co get creative to try to thwart the intrusive voice in his head.

Ling woke up with a start, suddenly becoming aware that he was on his feet, with only his well-honed reflexes preventing him from learning what Amestrian soil tasted like. He shook his head in a futile attempt to clear it; was he sleepwalking now? Is that why waking up had felt like an uphill battle? He went to rub a hand over his face, but froze; he was no longer wearing his gloves. And his hands were back to normal. And his shirt was now buttoned. What kind of crazy sleepwalking…? He put a hand in his pocket to search for his gloves and was met instead with multiple rocks. What…? He pulled one out to inspect in the dim starlight, but from what he could tell it was just a normal-

**_You like it? It’s mine._ **

Ling spun around, searching for the speaker. There was no one, he sensed no one, so what…? But wait, that voice was familiar. He turned his attention inward, to the swirling mass of souls behind his eyes, and was abruptly aware of a familiar face staring at him. “You! I thought you were gone!”

The face chuckled. **_Did you think you’d killed me? You’ll have to do better than that, whatever you did. What did you do, anyway? How did you lock me away like that?_ **His pupil-less eyes narrowed as he loomed over Ling.

Ling refused to be intimidated; he’d beaten this guy once, somehow, he could do it again. He could feel the homunculus’s will now, a force drowning out the usual mind-numbing wailing of his souls, attempting to push Ling from his controlling seat. Oh no he didn’t. Ling pushed back and found to his surprise he could easily maintain his place. He glared back at the fiendish visage. “I’m stronger than you, Monster, so don’t bother.”

The face raised an “eyebrow.” **_The name’s Greed, brat._ ** The force of his will increased, making Ling redouble his efforts. **_And it seems like you aren’t stronger All the time. You certainly couldn’t stop me when I took my body back earlier._ **

Ling’s stomach sank. That must have been when he’d fallen asleep; he can’t defend his mind when he’s asleep. “This isn’t your body, Monster. I didn’t accept _you_ , I accepted your power. And it’s mine now. I told you I was going to be emperor, and now thanks to that power, I will be. I don’t need you.” He wasn’t sure if destroying Greed would also destroy his philosopher’s stone, or even if he _could_ destroy the homunculus, but if this struggle started going badly for Ling he was going to need to try. He stood in the trees, knuckles white on the rock he still clutched in his hand, mustering every scrap of his fatigued willpower as the foreign presence in his mind intensified its efforts to overpower him.

**_Brat! You gave up your body to me! Your avarice is impressive, I’ll grant you that, but mine is still greater. You, a mere human, cannot hope to compete!_ ** The sin pressed forward, his visage filling Ling’s vision. **_You’ve got spunk, kid, but no one stands between me and what is Mine._ **

Ling hunched his body forward, veins in sharp relief on his face. No, he wasn’t going to lose, he _couldn’t_ lose, his retainers, his clan, were counting on him, needed him! He held his ground, staring down the sin, his own teeth bared as he braced himself against the onslaught.

In a colossal stroke of fortune, it didn’t seem like the homunculus could bring much more force to bear, and eventually the pressure slackened while still a ways from what Ling imagined his breaking point to be. If that’s the best Greed could do, he could manage. He almost collapsed from the relief, but forced himself to stay strong; the sin might not be through yet.

**_Tch._ ** The homunculus’s eyes were narrowed in anger. **_Not bad, human,_ ** he said grudgingly. **_But unless I’m mistaken, all I’ll need to do is wait, and I can claim my body to do as I please._ **

“Just you try it, Monster.” Ling needed to end this. What had he done to banish the creature last time? He hunted through his confused memories of re-awakening immortal, managing to recapture a feeling of resolve, of determination, of _need_ to live, to _win_. Armed with this, he lashed out at the sin, sending him back down into his subconscious. And this time he could “see” the results, the barriers he’d somehow managed to create to contain the homunculus’s consciousness before, the barriers he’d now succeeded in creating again.

After waiting to see if he could detect anything more from Greed he sank to the ground, mentally and physically drained from the struggle. This was… not ideal. He tried to avoid feeling crushed; they’d been so close to being home free, able to return to Xing posthaste. But now it seemed things were more… complicated. He could overcome this, he was still holding control with relative ease, he just couldn’t sleep… ever…

After a therapeutic bout of cursing he pushed himself to his feet; he needed to discuss these new developments with his retainers as quickly as possible. Hopefully they could all come up with a strategy to deal with his… _guest._ He turned and, orienting himself, took off towards the meeting place he’d unexpectedly vacated. Fu should be back by now as well, hopefully they hadn’t both gone off looking for him.

It seemed he was in luck; as he approached, he could feel both his retainers waiting, sitting at the base of the tree. He strode back into their camp, face grim, meeting their concerned expressions. “Young Lord, must you always wander off like this? We should try to stay on track for our journey back to Xing,” Fu gently chided.

Ling stood for a moment, running a hand through his bangs, trying to think. He caught his retainers’ eyes flicking to the back of his ungloved hand; oh right, his left one was _special_ now. He sighed and joined them on the ground.

“We have a problem.”

~~~

Ling briefly recounted his whole story for Fu, and then reluctantly summarized what had just occurred, still not quite willing to face what this might mean for them.

“So this monster, it’s not dead?” Fu spoke into the shocked silence after Ling had finished.

“No. I was mistaken, stupidly so, to imagine he’d just disappeared.”

“And now he comes out when you sleep.”

“Yep, it would appear so.”

“You hadn’t slept before now?” Fu looked slightly skeptical.

“No, fortunately.” He shivered, thankful he hadn’t allowed himself that luxury while searching for his retainers; he might have woken up back in the heart of the homunculi’s lair.

They were silent for a moment, each processing this new development.

“Do you know what the monster wants?”   

“Probably lots of things, I imagine. He did call himself ‘Greed,’ after all.” Remembering something, Ling reached into his pockets and emptied the small hoard of rocks onto the ground. “He’d picked these up while controlling my body.” He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of it; an immortal homunculus apparently liked collecting rocks. “He was probably trying to return to his creator, the one called Father,” Ling guessed. He debated trying to get information out of the homunculus, but wasn’t sure he wanted to risk letting him out of the prison he’d made. He still didn’t quite know how all he was doing any of this.

“So what now?” Lan Fan spoke, worried. “Should we try to remove the monster from your mind?”

“Maybe not, we don’t have to admit defeat yet. I can still control him, he can’t overpower me, at least while awake.” He looked between Lan Fan and Fu. “We went through a lot of trouble to get this stone, I’m not ready to give it up yet.”

“And it will be a lot harder for the Emperor to claim the stone for himself if it’s combined with your body,” Fu said softly, “is that what you are thinking, Young Lord?”

Ling smiled, bowing his head. “Perceptive as always, Fu.” He looked up again. “There are too many variables here; to separate out the monster, we would need an alchemist, and the only ones in this country willing to help us are probably the Elric brothers. But they are under close watch by the homunculi now. And still then, trying to destroy the monster might destroy the stone. I propose this:” -he leaned forward, eyes intense- “we return to Xing as planned, and demonstrate this secret of immortality we have found. Then, when my place as emperor is more secured, we try to remove this dangerous homunculus. The Yao clan has several skilled alkehestry users, they would understand what is at stake and help us. And then even if the stone is destroyed, it will not matter. We just-“ he rubbed his temples “-need to keep this under control until then.”

“That is monumentally risky, Young Lord. If this creature somehow destroys you in your sleep-“ Fu stopped when Ling held up a hand.

“I know. And I trust in my resolve and strength of will; they allowed me to survive becoming fused with the stone in the first place, and if the monster already did bring all his strength against me tonight, then I am confident I will be able to withstand whatever he throws at me in the future.”

Fu and Lan Fan nodded in acquiescence. “So then, what will we do when you sleep, Young Lord,” Fu asked.

Ling smiled ruefully. “How much rope do we have?”

His retainers both looked scandalized. “Are we just supposed to tie you up every night from now until we get to Xing?” Fu demanded.

“Yep!” Ling said brightly. “Might need to gag me too, if we stay anywhere there are other people!”

Lan Fan looked physically ill. Fu rubbed his forehead. “Young Lord, I must protest, this is most improper-“

“I said it before, when we were first getting into this whole mess,” Ling interrupted, “I don’t particularly care much for decorum or even my own pride when we have so much at stake. I can’t stay awake forever, even immortal it seems, so we will need to take whatever solution we can find.”

Fu hesitated, then sighed in defeat. “Allow me to relay what information I have, then. I have sent word to our contacts, and our guide across the desert will be waiting for us not far from where we entered the country. I had also secured train tickets, but with your current _situation,_ Young Lord, I would suggest we avoid civilization as much as possible.”

Ling nodded grimly. “I agree. And,” he reluctantly continued, “we should travel at least a day’s journey from Central before I try to sleep again, so that even if the monster _does_ walk off with my body again, he can’t make it all the way back to his master in one night.” He turned to Lan Fan. “Do you think you are able to walk more tonight?”

Lan Fan nodded, eyes shining with determination. “Of course, Young Lord!”

Ling expected nothing less from her. He stood, steeling himself for the journey ahead. “And don’t worry,” he sought to reassure against the trepidation he was certain they were all feeling. “The road may be harder than anticipated, but our goal is still clear before us.”

His retainers nodded in solidarity, and they gathered their bags before setting off to the East.

~~~

Ling watched his retainers finish checking the knots on his bonds, and then he tried to twist out of them himself. After throwing his whole strength against the ropes they didn’t seem to budge. He nodded at his guards.

They’d tied him against a tree in a sitting position, legs roped together in front of him along the ground, his arms stretched backwards around the tree and connected with rope, the tree being big enough his hands didn’t quite touch. After everyone involved was satisfied there was no way to break or untie the ropes from Ling’s position, his retainers took up places in front of him, ready to begin their vigil.

Finally, Ling closed his eyes. He was going to try for only a short bout of sleep, aiming to bring himself back to consciousness soon just in case something unexpected occurred while he was out, especially since he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hear screams while the other guy was in control. Maybe he’d get lucky, maybe the homunculus would stay trapped in the prison he’d made for him. He started to drift, so many days without sleep meant his consciousness started to slip away if he so much as stopped fighting with all his might, and within moments he was dead to the world.

~~~

Yeah, Greed had said he would wait, but even as he eagerly waited for the brat’s will to weaken again, he sure found he didn’t enjoy it. How long had he existed, less than a week? And how much time of that had he spent unable to do anything other than repeatedly bonk his face against the null barriers the kid had put up? Lots, that’s how much.

Just when he was thinking the kid wouldn’t _ever_ go all weak again, his prison cell started melting away. He paused for a moment, looking for the brat’s mental form, locating it laid out again in a gap in the swirling souls. Huh, maybe this was a habit of his. After making sure he wouldn’t be bothered, Greed flowed his consciousness back into control of his body, opening his eyes to see what new things he’d find this time.

In the light of a dim lantern he could see two figures watching him, one he thought he recognized as the comatose girl from the previous night, and then a new masked figure, who looked like he was probably pretty old, by human standards. Greed next realized he was tied up. Damn, they were ready for him this time. He jerked against the bonds, noticing the two sentinels tensing as he did so. Hmm, seemed sturdy enough. He tried to move his hands, and found he could barely feel the rope with the tips of his fingers. Oh, this was _wonderful_ , a delightful weakness he could exploit. Seems these humans had forgotten about his shield.

A devious smile spread across his face as he let his shield form on his fingertips. He figured he might as well introduce himself though, while he was here. “Well hello there. My name is Greed. I don’t believe we’ve officially met.”

The girl tensed even further at his voice, looked like she was trying very hard to suppress her fight-or-flight instinct. “Monster! Servant of the enemy! Relinquish control of the Young Lord’s body immediately!” The old man gave her a sharp look as she spoke.

Greed’s smirk widened. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” He carefully positioned a claw, and with a swift movement severed the robe binding his arms before continuing his swipe to slice through the ropes on his legs, standing up in one fluid motion. He chuckled as the other two seemed to freeze seeing him suddenly free. “‘Servant of the enemy,’ huh? That’s a fancy title. I take it you don’t like my old man, then? I’ll tell you what.” He tilted his head. “Don’t get in my way, and I won’t make sure Father has a few less ‘enemies’ running around.”

Looked like they weren’t keen to take him up on the offer. Pity, he thought, letting his shield form up his arms again. “Hey little lady, you stay out of this, I don’t really feel like fighting a woman-Guh!“ The two struck without warning, and Greed found himself with his legs swept out from underneath him. He fell backwards, hitting the ground with a grunt, and then the old man was there, twisting his arms behind him and restraining his neck in a chokehold. The girl had already roped his legs together, even with her one arm; damn these humans were fast

“Leave the Young Lord’s body, Monster,” the old man commanded in his ear.

Greed found it interesting these guys hadn’t drawn blades on him or anything, wouldn’t that be more threatening? Well, to a normal human, at least. “Sorry pops, no can do!” He struggled against their holds, but neither the ropes or the old man were yielding. Time to mix things up a little. He abruptly twisted in the old man’s grip, slipping his head from the man’s hold as he snapped his own neck with a _crack_.

As his opponents cried out in dismay, Greed took the opportunity to wrench his arms from the old man’s slackened grip and brought his legs to his chest, slashing through the ropes again. He rose to his feet to face his stunned attackers, rolling his neck with a few gruesome pops as red sparks danced over his skin. He smirked at their stricken expressions, reaching up to slowly wipe a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. “Hmm, that’s one death,” he held up a finger. “Think you can do better than that?”

His opponents remained frozen. C’mon, what was the matter, didn’t they want to play? He couldn’t see the old man’s expression very well under his mask, but the girl certainly looked like she was struck dumb with utter shock and terror. What, had she never seen anyone break their neck before?

As he looked at her bandaged stump something tickled his memory, what had the brat said? His retainer ‘cut off her arm in service to him?’ Well well, this must be the gal! A few things finally fell into place for Greed, these ninjas must belong to the ‘Young Lord’ whose body was now his. And that would explain both their apparent reluctance to injure him, and their horrified reactions to his little neck stunt; they didn’t want the body of their master to get damaged. Maybe they were even oathbound not to hurt him themselves. Well that made things easier, he supposed, if less interesting.

The old man barked something to the girl in their foreign language, perhaps to try to break her catatonic state. Greed looked at them and chuckled; they belonged to the kid, and, well, what was the kid’s was his now, after all. Greed didn’t particularly feel like making a habit of destroying his property, so when the old man charged in again, he merely dodged.

Unfortunately, his opponents took advantage of that, and the girl, finally free of her paralysis, darted close to sweep his legs from under him again. Greed felt the old man grab one of his arms, and the ninja somehow managed to wrap more rope around Greed’s torso between keeping a grip on his arm and dodging Greed’s backward swipes. Greed found himself crashing backwards against the tree, arms pinned to his sides. Before he could try to regain his feet, the old man had secured the rope around the tree trunk again, severely limiting his movement.

“Hey, get off!” Unable to use his claws to slice his restraints, Greed kicked at the girl as she effortlessly looped more rope around his flailing limbs, abruptly cinching it tight and binding his legs together once again. This was certainly bothersome, first they wouldn’t let him leave, and then they wouldn’t even fight him properly, and now they weren’t letting him do _anything_. At least he could talk.

“You people are so rude, what’s your problem, anyway? Does my attitude offend you?” He mocked.

The two ninjas stood in front of him, just out of reach, but close enough to put a stop to any funny business. The old man regarded him coldly under the mask, while the girl seemed to be almost shaking with rage. The old man spoke in a measured voice. “What ‘offends’ us, Monster, is that you’ve stolen the body of our prince. Now, you will return his body to him. You say you can’t leave; if this is so, go back to where you were before and let him take back what is rightfully his, thief.”

Greed pondered how to respond to the ninja’s demands. He could say that he couldn’t give the brat control, the kid was unresponsive at the moment; that might be a fun one to watch their expressions. He could say that their beloved prince had willingly relinquished his body to Greed, and that it was now his by rights, and had he told his loyal servants he’d given up his body to a monster? He settled with what he was certain would be the _most_ annoying response.

“Or what?” He leered, watching their faces contort in rage.

“Stop playing games, Monster!” The girl had finally drawn a weapon, some sort of strange knife, but still couldn’t seem to bring herself to point it in Greed’s direction. “The Young Lord is to become emperor of a whole nation! Don’t you dare take that from him!”

“Oh yeah, he did mention something about becoming emperor, now that I think about it. But that’s not _my_ problem.” His smirk widened as she shook with helpless anger. This was so much more fun than being cooped up in the brat’s head all day.

The more he spoke, the more pissed the girl got. “You are not worthy to stand in his presence, let alone use his mouth for your foul words!” Greed could practically see her warring instincts to stab him and to avoid harming his body in any way duking it out. The old man clamped a hand on her shoulder, muttering something Greed couldn’t make out.

Man, this chick was delightfully hot-headed, this should be fun. Greed decided to see how far he could goad her. “Well you should take that up with your ‘Young Lord,’ he certainly saw fit to _debase_ himself in the name of power. Face it,” he challenged, “he willingly gave his body over to me, and now it is rightfully _mine_ . He forfeited his claim when he accepted _my_ stone. And now this container is mine by rights, and I will keep ownership of it, now and forever” His eyes glinted strangely in the dim light. “ _You_ are the ones imposing on _me._ If you had any respect, you’d be able to see, this kid belongs to _Greed_ now.”

The girl let out a scream of rage, straining against the old man’s iron grip on her shoulder. The old man, for his part, looked like he would like nothing better than to rip Greed’s stone out of his prince’s body with his bare hands. Greed gleefully watched their reactions, continuing to twist in his bonds, trying to get an arm free. He was looking forward to a rematch. Sure, they might just knock him over again, but they’d eventually run out of rope, and he bet the humans would tire out significantly before he did.

But then he felt something, no, was the brat’s will getting stronger again _already?_ That wasn’t fair, he’d just been getting started! Greed tried to resist, but the brat returned with a vengeance, sweeping him back down into his now-familiar, boring prison without so much as a “How d’you do.” **_No!_ ** Greed slammed the force of his will against his walls, more to make himself feel better than anything, he was pretty sure trying that was a lost cause at this point. Damn it. Well, on the bright side, it seemed like these periodic bouts of weakness were going to be a habit, so he sat back to wait for his next chance to attempt to return to Central, and also bother the two humans apparently now tasked with guarding him.

~~~

“He said _what?_ ”

After Ling had proven it was in fact him talking upon his awakening, his retainers filled him in on the _things_ he’d missed. He absentmindedly rubbed his neck; that was one part he _was_ glad he’d been unconscious for.

“It said you’d forfeited your rights to your own body, and that you belonged to it now,” Fu recounted with quiet fury. “The insolence of that creature. We must try to remove it, Young Lord. I cannot bear the thought of something that thinks it owns you, a Prince of Xing, inhabiting your body.”

“It won’t matter if he believes he owns me or not when I can keep control, Fu. Just… Don’t talk to him. He clearly enjoys baiting you both; don’t fall for it, and he’ll have no weapons against you.”

Fu glanced at Lan Fan, who looked down, still visibly angry. “Of course, Young Lord, we will try.”

Lan Fan addressed Ling with her stare fixed on the ground. “It is difficult to remain silent when we can’t use the _usual_ punishments for disrespecting a prince, Young Lord.”

“Yes I suppose so, although I doubt even those would deter him, if he breaks my neck so casually.” Ling looked thoughtfully at their tree of choice for a bit, before a slow smile spread across his face. “Maybe there _is_ something we can do to let him know that he won’t get the better of us.”

“What, Young Lord? Anything we would put him through you would have to endure as well,” Fu countered.

“That is true. But hear me out.”

~~~

Greed didn’t have to wait very long this time, and as soon as the barriers started coming down, he surged forward, grabbing the seat of control; maybe he could get the drop on the guards again. He opened his eyes, and immediately stared around in bewilderment, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. Why did everything look so strange, and why did his head feel funny, like all of his blood was in his ears? He blinked, disoriented, until he finally focused on the two ninjas. After a few seconds of staring confusedly between their heads and their feet, his eyes widened in understanding. Son of a bitch, those bastards had hung him upside-down!

~~~

“So did it work?”

As Ling’s retainers untied him from his awkward position, he could see there were no new knots in the ropes.

“Like a charm. It barely struggled, and just sort of muttered to itself the whole time. We don’t think it could think very well, whenever it tried to goad us it made absolutely no sense.” Fu collected the ropes, a smugly triumphant look on his face.

Ling reached up to untie his feet, then flipped to the ground, or at least tried to; from his new position on his back he had a good view of the pre-dawn sky, and a spinning head. Seemed being suspended upside down all night took its toll, even on an immortal body.

“Young Lord!” Ling waved away his retainers’ concerned chorus.

“I’m fine, just a bit dizzy… Maybe this isn’t the best long-term solution to our nightly problem.” He carefully sat up, wincing as his stomach did some unpleasant things in response to the blood draining from being pooled in his head. Was this what a hangover was like? Giving his head a few good shakes, he got carefully to his feet. “Hopefully the monster learned his lesson,” he laughed, “I’m not sure I want to do this very often.” It unfortunately seemed he couldn’t entirely escape the discomfort inflicted on his personal sin.

“I agree, there also might not be suitable trees, Young Lord.” Fu indicated the arching root that had made it possible to securely tie Ling’s hands towards the ground. “But now we have something to hold over the creature’s head.”

They gathered their things and began their eastward journey anew. Ling knew this was a much slower pace they’d all hoped, not only could they not take trains or rent cars, they had to stop early enough so each of his retainers could individually get some sleep, since it was agreed at least one should be awake with Ling at all times, and both needed to be awake when Ling himself tried to sleep. It was a clunky and imperfect arrangement, but Ling thought it would work, they only needed to do this for a little while, and then it would be worth it.

~~~

As they stopped for lunch, Lan Fan stared at her food instead of eating. Finally, she took a deep breath as if steeling herself, and she looked towards Ling, not quite making eye contact. “Young Lord, may I ask a question?” Her voice was hesitant; it seemed like she’d been working up the courage to ask for a while.

“Of course, Lan Fan! What is it?” Ling had expected questions, everything that had happened had been highly irregular, not to mention the new consciousness that held sway when he slept.

“Young Lord, it’s just…” Lan Fan spoke up, uncertainly addressing the ground. “Is it true, what the monster said, did you willingly surrender yourself?”

Ling sighed. “I had two options. Accept the stone, or perish.” His voice was hard with resolve. “I did willingly choose to allow my body to host the stone, and by extension the homunculus. Again, I have to be willing to do _anything_ to succeed; my comfort is secondary, especially in the face of what we’ve sacrificed,” -his eyes brushed past Lan Fan’s bandaged shoulder- “to get this far.” He took another bite of bread. “So yes, I did willingly allow this monster to reside in my body. But that does not mean I’m going to let him _have_ it.”

He grinned, jabbing a thumb at his chest. “I worked hard on this body after all, kept it alive for 15 years! If this guy just thinks I’m going to roll over and give it up, he’s in for a rude awakening.” He gave a quiet laugh at his last statement. “So don’t worry about what the creature says; I’m not going to surrender to him by any means. Now lets keep going, we have an emperor to impress!”

~~~

“So an uneventful night?” Ling’s retainers undid the knots from his limbs in the early morning light.

“More or less, Young Lord,” Fu responded, “We did have a scare where he nearly worked an arm free; that hardened skin of his made it so he was unafraid of the rope burning him. Fortunately we were able to tighten the knots before he could get loose.”

Ling rubbed his limbs, happy that his new healing abilities seemed to hasten their recovery of feeling. He paused when he felt a patch of armor on his wrist; that jerk, he’d left it on again. He turned to his retainers. “That’s good, I don’t want you guys to have to fight him again. How was his verbal abuse this time? Any more grandiose claims of ownership?”

“A few. Fortunately, my granddaughter was able to hold her tongue, and he gave up after an hour or so.”

“Oof,” Ling grimaced in sympathy, “I’m sorry you had to sit through that.”

“Don’t worry about us, Young Lord, how are you feeling? Are you better rested?” Fu and Lan Fan looked at him in concern; it was true he’d not had a good night’s sleep in over a week.

“I’m feeling all right.” Ling was in fact feeling no such thing. Due to what was undoubtedly the influence of the wailing hoard of souls he’d recently acquired, not to mention the bothersome incarnation of sin itself also taking up residence, the three hours of sleep he was getting a night felt like less than one. At this rate, he knew his mental and physical performance were going to begin suffering badly, possibly to the point he wouldn’t be able to hold his own against the hostile force in his head.

However, he wasn’t ready to let his retainers know his worries yet, he still might be able to make it to Xing, especially if this new nightly routine continued working without incident. Also, keeping up moral was important. The priority was to get to Xing; they could worry about long-term solutions later. He hitched his smile firmly in place, and they set off again.

~~~

Greed watched as the brat’s consciousness faded into sleep, then slipped smoothly back into the driver’s seat. Finally, the twerp still hadn’t let him see or hear anything all day. Now, lets see what those two bodyguards have cooked up for tonight. Hopefully it was more interesting than _last_ night, he’d almost died of boredom, and he was immortal.

He opened his eyes, taking stock of his situation. Hmm, arms tied around a tree branch over his head, torso tied to the trunk behind him, legs roped to a good-sized rock; not bad. The sin stretched his neck, grotesquely popping it as he held eye contact with the two figures watching with fixed glares from the shadows.

“Well well long time no see! Kid managed to keep his eyes open for a while this time!” He smirked at their stony silence. “Hey c’mon, don’t be like that, what’s a guy gotta do for some conversation around here?” He started testing his bonds, not bothering to hide what he was doing. “This brat isn’t exactly the best company, even he’s giving me the cold shoulder-“ he jerked his arms, but the branch didn’t give. Bummer. “-but I guess he’s probably dull company anyway. You’d have to be some kind of idiot to think you can keep me beat-“

Greed hadn’t seen the girl move, but suddenly she was there, in his face, holding one of her strange knifes to his throat, expression twisted in anger. “Don’t you dare speak of the young lord with your foul words, monster.”

Greed widened his eyes. O- _ho,_ now this was something interesting! He’d finally managed to get a rise out of the oh-so-stoic guardians after a night of failure; it seemed this feisty chick held the honor of her “young lord” very dearly. Oh, but what a pity she wouldn’t _dare_ harm his body. His face split in a predatory grin; tonight was going to be such _fun_.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

**Omake: Missing Scars**

 

“Young Lord, may I ask another question?”

Ling paused in his lunch. Lan Fan looked more anxious than before, her normal composure broken by nervous fiddling. He braced himself for whatever it might be, he wouldn’t be surprised if his retainers were questioning his morals at this point if he’d willingly played host to a monster, giving up his humanity in his quest for power. “Of course, what is it?”

“Young Lord, I...” She avoided looking at him, opting to stare into the surrounding trees instead. “If I may, I just, I know it’s not my place, but-“ She took another breath before blurting, “What happened to your bellybutton?”

Ling stared at her, dumbfounded, trying to process what she’d said. “What…?” What did she mean, his bellybutton was fine, right…? He looked down at his abdomen, what did she mean, there was nothing wrong with- WHERE WAS IT??

He poked frantically at his stomach, his  _ entirely smooth _ stomach, trying to find some sign of the missing navel, to no avail. He turned his flabbergasted gaze back to his retainers, looking frantically between them as if their faces might hold the answers the indifferent universe was keeping from him. “Guh…” He sputtered a reply. What  _ had  _ happened to it?

“Greed!” Ling shoved the barriers aside to confront the homunculus. “What did you do to me!?”

**_Uhhhh…_ ** The sin was clearly caught off guard at the sudden intrusion.  **_Can you be more specific?_ **

“What did you do to my body, Monster!”

**_I… are you just Now noticing you aren’t human anymore? That’s kind of what being a homunculus is, a human can’t hold this many souls without some remodeli-_ **

“WHERE’S MY BELLYBUTTON, GREED?!”

**_Your… what?_ **

Ling fought back the urge to scream in frustration and smashed the barriers back around the homunculus. He sat for a bit, breathing heavily; was this another price to pay, another symbol that he was a freak of nature? Would he have to wear  _ shirts _ now?? He clutched his head, trying to come to terms with this entirely unexpected development; he wasn’t expecting  _ fashion _ to be the cost of immortality. There had to be somehow, some way around this…

After a few moments he looked back up at his retainer’s nonplussed gazes, asking in a broken voice, “Do we… have any more bandages?”


	3. Saving Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greed puts on a little show for his captors. They aren't amused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter to transition into the next scene.

Greed opened his eyes to find himself in a now-familiar position. Damn, looked like once these Xing types find something that works, they keep it up. They’d probably run out of trees eventually, there couldn’t be trees _all_ over Amestris, right?

Last night had been entertaining, at least. Offhandedly insulting the girl’s prince had turned her a nice shade of crimson. Greed imagined she came dangerously close to spontaneously combusting with how badly she wanted to stab his face off; too bad it was her prince’s face too. Dumb Grandpa had ruined his fun again, sending the girl away and threatening to gag Greed when he’d continued insulting her princely brat at a higher volume.

Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure why his captors _hadn’t_ gagged him before now, maybe it was too great an affront to their prince for them to handle? Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the main tell for who was in control _was_ his voice, since the brat’s was so much whinier than his. Unintended consequences of literally having the same face as someone else, he supposed. More talking for him, then.

He swept his eyes through the dim light of the lantern they were using to keep an eye on their unjustly imprisoned captive until he spotted the two bodyguards squatting just at the edge of the light, murderous expressions and all. Or at least he could see the girl’s expression, but he could Feel the old man’s no problem. Yeesh, these guys were really holding his occupation of their prince’s body against him. This wasn’t even his idea, he’d just gained consciousness with a nice human host served on a platter.

Greed briefly considered reminding the two glowering shadows that the brat had _willingly_ surrendered his body, and that if anything _Greed_ should by rights be the one upset that he was being held captive in what was now _his_ body, but he wasn’t too keen to spend another night upside-down.

So, he settled for a wry smirk as he commenced his nightly ritual of cracking every joint he was able, enjoying the occasional slight flinch he got for his noisy troubles. “So,” he began his next custom of attempting to get any kind of reaction whatsoever, “anything exciting happen today?”

“…”

“Weather agreeing with your joints, pops?”

“…”

“Another tough crowd, huh? Just my luck.” He chuckled a bit at his own joke. “So, where are we now anyway? I must confess I’m not the best at geography.” He in fact had zero knowledge of any sort of geography; apparently it wasn’t something Father felt he needed to know, but he knew what the word meant so he felt he might as well use it.

Surprise surprise, no answer. His brow creased slightly as he took a moment to think through why this whole situation had slightly confused him from the beginning. Something just seemed… weird to him. His thoughts wandered to a half fantasy where he wasn’t the one tied up and these two killjoys were, when something occurred to him.

The knowledge he had about what people were supposed to do (or he guessed it was what people were supposed to do) to get what they wanted from someone else involved a lot more… _persuasion_ than this. Seemed like a few torture techniques _were_ among the things Father thought he should start off his existence knowing. He tried to shrug off his vague feeling of unease about that in favor of trying for some more conversation.

“All right, I’m a generous guy, I’ll give _you_ two the chance to pick the topic. Don’t be shy!”

“…”

“Yeesh, anyone ever tell you guys you’re very boring? If you’re going to keep a guy tied up all night at least have the decency to _talk_ to him. All this silence-“ he jerked his head in lieu of gesturing with one of his actual limbs “-is rude, you know that? Although,” he remembered his recent thoughts, “I suppose I should be glad you aren’t trying to beat me out of the kid- You know what, never mind, I might prefer that to this whole quietness thing you’ve got going on.”

Greed sat stewing for a moment before his eyes widened, inspiration curling the corners of his mouth again. Why didn’t he give these two chumps a treat, might even get a good reaction out of it too!

“Then again,” he drawled, beginning to summon his carbon shield over his skin, “it’s not like you could lay a scratch on me.” He finished with a devious grin as his shield completed its journey over his face.

Immediately the night filled with a flurry of Xingese cursing and screams of rage. Greed pressed his head back against the tree in spite of himself, recoiling from the furious expressions now inches from his own face. What the hell?? Wasn’t this just body armor?? He searched the knowledge Father had given him, but there was nothing there about his Ultimate Shield causing irrational anger to anyone who saw it. So what…?

“Uncover the Young Lord’s face immediately, monster!”

Oh good the girl was speaking a language he could understand now. Greed had very little incentive to obey; he preferred to keep his shield on when there were knives within three inches of his face. So they were angry he’d supposedly disfigured the brat’s face, was that it? Now that his shock was fading a tad, he decided to have a bit more fun.

“Why should I uncover it? Is it because you enjoy looking at your 'Young Lord’s' face so much?”

Greed’s needling was instantaneously rewarded with a scarlet flush blazing across the girl’s unmasked face as her shrieks began to transcend language. He sat back to enjoy this newfound entertainment, which was regrettably cut short by the old man placing a commanding hand on the girl’s shoulder. The ninja murmured something to the wrathful girl, and she nodded and stalked off into the darkness; how disappointing, this had been almost as fun as the previous night.

The sadly much-calmer man placed his face close to Greed’s again. “Now listen to me, spirit of Greed, or whatever you call yourself. This young man will be the emperor of an entire nation very soon. In order to succeed, he will need to show a strong and dignified presence to his people. And for that-“ he moved close enough that his mask nearly hit against Greed’s shielded nose “-he will need his face. His unspoiled, _human,_ face. Do I make myself perfectly clear?” The old man finally withdrew, looking coldly down at his captive.

So he’d been right, these guys were worried he’d messed up their liege’s chances at ruling. He chuckled in reply. “It’s ok, gramps, don’t get your panties in a bunch, this isn’t permanent.” Greed let the carbon on his face transition back to skin. Too bad he was an honest sin, he’d have loved to see how worked up he could get them by pretending he couldn’t undo his handiwork.

The old man stood regarding him for another minute before nodding. He moved back to his usual place at the edge of the light, the girl’s resentful face barely visible behind him. Looks like that might be the end of it. Ah well, it had been fun while it lasted.

Figuring that was the last conversation he’d get that night, Greed instead tilted his head up, looking for stars among the gaps in the tree branches. Maybe tomorrow they’d answer.

~~~

Ling lay on the ground for a moment, slightly stunned. Had it come to this? He waved away his retainers’ anxious cries; he wasn’t hurt, and even if he had been it certainly wouldn’t have lasted long. As he got to his feet again, he could see it in their eyes; they _knew_ something was wrong now.

Since almost before he could walk, he’d been training: martial arts, exercises to increase his strength and dexterity, the whole shebang. An indispensable part of being a Prince of Xing if he wanted to avoid assassination; a clumsy prince was a dead prince. As a result, not only had he been proficient in multiple fighting styles by the tender age of five, but his balance and coordination had been impeccable since even before then. Except for his unfortunate tendency to pass out, he _never_ fell on accident. So now, after over a decade, the unthinkable had happened: he’d _tripped._

He tried to dust himself off as casually as possible, but it was no good. There was no escaping it now, it was in the open; his long days and restless nights had been taking an enormous toll. Ling was sure the lack of sleep was only part of the problem; he had a sneaking suspicion the constant mental battle of wills with his avaricious adversary was also serving to damage his faculties far beyond what mere sleep deprivation could do.

“Young Lord, you can’t keep going like this.”

Ling grit his teeth. “I have to, Fu. We’re so close to victory, I will _not_ let my weakness hold us back.”

“Young Lord, we need to find another way-“

“No!” He stared down his retainer. “We will keep going. Our priority is to reach the emperor as quickly as possible. I can handle this. I _have_ to handle this. And we must. Keep. Going.”

At his decree his retainers fell silent and nodded. Though Ling could still see Fu giving him an intense side eye, they could not argue with his direct commands. Was Fu right? Yes, Ling knew he was probably going to burn out sooner rather than later, and who knew how long he could retain control over his own body? But he couldn’t stop now, they’d all sacrificed too much, and they were so _close._

Stubbornly ignoring his blurry vision and pounding head, he pressed onwards.


	4. Self Indulgence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greed has the best night of his life. Ling has the worst morning of his life.

Well this was shaping up to be another dull night, just like every other night. Greed hadn’t even existed for very many of these, but he knew they were supposed to be _fun_ and not things you spent tied to trees with silent sentries watching your every move. True, he’d gotten some good moments the last few nights, and he might be able to use those experiences to tease more reactions out of his jailers. The girl especially had some entertaining responses to both insults to her prince and insinuations that she cared about her lord as more than a liege.

However, he hesitated to dig for those reactions again. He wasn’t so bored that angry yells were that much of an improvement over silence, and he had a vague feeling these sorts of things weren’t the reactions he should focus on getting anyway. Ah well, he could always fall back if he got really desperate.

He’d begun his nightly attempt at stargazing when a sudden flurry of furtive whispers and movement brought his attention back down to earth. The other two seemed agitated, the old man hurriedly dousing the lantern as they exchanged whispers in their native language.

“Hey what’s the matter, if you don’t mind me asking?” Greed asked, with a hint of sarcasm.

He got a stern “Quiet!” for his trouble. He might’ve protested, but he opted for straining to hear if he could make out any of their conversation, foreign language or no. As his eyes adjusted to the faint moonlight, he could tell they seemed to be arguing, with the old man making adamant gestures, possibly to indicate for the girl to stay put. Then the masked ninja was off, disappearing into the shadows, while the girl remained, still protesting.

She muttered to herself under her breath, and Greed wasn’t sure, but thought she might be clutching the bandaged stump where her left arm used to be. He tried again. “Sooo what’s going on? Gramps off for a stroll?”

She shot him what he was sure was a withering glare. “You stay. If you try to leave, we’ll just track you down in the morning anyway.” She was rummaging through one of the packs the old man had left behind.

Greed heard clinking, were those coins? No, weapons? She seemed to be wrapping something around her face, and then she was gone as well, leaving Greed alone in the near complete darkness. Well this was different. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste. Sure, they probably tied him too tightly to do much, but now he could put his whole strength into trying to break his bonds without them breathing down his neck. He might even get lucky and break the tree branch.

He set to work trying to twist his way out through brute force; at least this brat’s body had a lot for him to work with for that. He occasionally paused to listen for any indication of what was going on. Eventually he could detect some faint sounds, maybe distant fighting? What were those two up to?

Abruptly a bright light filled his vision, and through his narrowed eyes Greed could see four figures standing in their little camp. Four _very_ well-armed figures.

“Well, look what we have here! You look like you’re having fun, dontcha kid?” The speaker nudged Greed’s leg with his foot, chuckling. These guys were also wearing masks, nearly opposite from the old man’s, with just the bottom half of the face covered. These didn’t look like ninjas, what other type of person wore masks? Greed tried to search through the knowledge mushed in his head.

“Hey, I’m not a kid, thank you!” He was about to inform them he was a Fully Adult homunculus, but one of the men spoke up before he got the chance.

“Suuuure, whatever you say, ‘sir.’” They all chuckled. “So, how many people are holding you? Any still hiding out around here?”

“Two. And I dunno,” Greed shrugged.

The men scoffed. “Two? You liar, the rest of the boys would’ve taken care of just _two.”_ One of them indicated the direction the faint noises of battle were coming from.

“Hey, I don’t lie!” Greed replied, offended. “They’re pretty good fighters from what I can tell though, so maybe that’s your problem.”

“Ha, alright kid. Hey, you up for causing them people who tied you up some trouble?”

Greed grinned. “Sure, that’s my favorite past time.”

The men glanced to the one who seemed to be in charge, and at a nod the closest one stepped over Greed’s legs to slash a knife through the ropes around his wrists and torso, while another cut through the bonds around his feet.

“Ah, thank you.” He stood up and stretched, enjoying his first taste of freedom in a few days. After cracking his neck a few times he turned to where one of the- were they called bakers? No, that wasn’t quite right. He turned to where one of the men was rummaging through the packs on the ground.

“Hey there boys, that’s my stuff.”

The men looked at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. “Oh come now,” the leader stepped up to put an arm around Greed’s shoulders, speaking very loudly and slowly for some reason, “don’t you owe us for letting you loose? We’re just taking our payment, after all.” The man’s eyes were much more severe in the harsh lantern light.

Greed thought for a moment. “I suppose you’re right, I’ll give you one of my bags for cutting my ropes, equivalent exchange and all that.”

The men laughed again, and the leader took his arm from around Greed’s shoulders and stepped back to stand with his men. “Oh, I think we’ll be taking _all_ these bags.” He idly twirled a pistol around his finger. “What do you think?” At his question guns appeared in each of their hands. “Why don’t you just start walking, kid? These are our things now.”

Greed stood for a second, brow furrowed in concentration, before clapping his hands together. “Bandits! That’s the word!”

The men just stared.

“Oh sorry, I forgot what you guys are called and it was bugging me. Anyway,” his grin sharpened, “I think those bags are still very much _mine._ ” He got one step forward before the bandits opened fire, putting a couple rounds through his chest and clipping his shoulder. He paused briefly. “Wow, that was pretty rude!”

Red alchemical sparks cracked from the wounds as he resumed his advance, retaining eye contact with the leader, whose face looked rather pale under the mask. “Wha..?”

A few of the men got their wits back in time to fire off another round, this time getting one through Greed’s forehead. He made a show of slowly bringing his head forward again as the hole closed with a fizzle of red. He took a moment to savor their shocked eyes; now _this_ was fun. He held up a hand. “Like I said, those bags are mine, and I would advise you don’t try to steal my stuff. But I’m a reasonable guy, if you want to run, now’s the time.” He let his shield start forming down his hand.

Seems someone had had enough, and one of the men broke away to sprint into the darkness. The other three, however, opened fire again at the lead bandit’s screams of “KILL IT!”

Greed shrugged before lunging forward, swiping his newly formed claws across the leader’s torso. He shifted focus to one of the other goons, casually reaching out his other, now-shielded hand to rip their arm to the bone. As the two bandits sank to the ground screaming in pain, Greed advanced on the last man standing, wicked laughter spilling from his throat. The frantic bandit couldn’t decide where to focus his fire, his shaking hand moving the gun’s barrel between Greed’s head and heart. He fired off another round at his chest, this one ricocheting off the thin layer of carbon now coating the homunculus’s skin.

Greed debated covering his head as well, it was annoying being shot in the face, but he wanted these guys to be able to see his expressions. He tilted his head back with a haughty smirk, keeping eye contact with the bandit’s panicked face, letting him know this was Greed’s game, and he was just a toy. He pounced, slashing a hand across the man’s gun arm and turning his shoulder into mincemeat.

Another shot pinged off the back of his shoulder, and Greed turned to see the leader holding a gun in his bloody hand. Couldn’t have that. He loomed over the man, shadowed eyes reflecting red in the lantern’s light.

“What… are you...” The unfortunate bandit choked out a question through a mouthful of blood. Greed began to lean down but paused as the man emptied his gun into his chest, continuing to pull the trigger long after it only made clicks.

The sin moved his face very close to the panting bandit’s, teeth bared in a broad grin. “The name’s Greed.” He shifted his gaze to the man’s hand, now trying futilely to stab a knife into his shielded skin. “Please stop that,” Greed said politely, before jamming his hand through the man’s shoulder.

He stood up, leaving the three men whimpering on the ground. He could still hear gunshots and yelling from where the other bandit ran off to, his captors must still be fighting. Greed cracked his neck again; this was possibly the most fun he’d had his whole life, and the night was still young.

He turned towards the noise; time to see what those two were up to. He stalked off through the trees, a predator after prey.

~~~

As Greed approached the source of the noise, he could see light through the trees; looked like several people had flashlights, and also like someone’s lantern had started a small fire. Fine by him, he couldn’t see in the dark like the two ninjas apparently could. Speaking of such, where were they?

He caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows of some trees to his right, but as he peered closer it just looked like a couple bandits. Fortunately, they had their attention towards the lights, guns ready, clearly hiding from something. Greed let his face break into another smile; here was some fresh meat. He made no effort to hide his approach, but it was still laughably long before the two turned and noticed him.

Once the bandits evidently realized he wasn’t one of them, they trained their guns on him, one asking in a confused whisper, “Hey, who are you? Get out of here!”

Greed chuckled. “Oh, and miss the fun? I don’t think so!” He resumed his leisurely approach.

“Go away! Stay back!” The bandits must have thought he’d gotten close enough, and started shooting. Greed let a few bullets hit, making no move to dodge, enjoying as their eyes got progressively wider. Finally, he lunged, sweeping his claws low and ripping through their legs. As they collapsed to their knees, he turned and raked his claws across the back of their shoulders. Two down, plenty more to go.

As the crippled bandit’s screams echoed through the trees, Greed peeked towards the rest of the battlefield. From what he could tell there were five or six bandits concentrating fire around one spot, with twice that many bodies strewn across the forest floor. None of the corpses looked small enough to be either of his captors’, so they were probably both still fighting. Good. Something must be wrong though, he would have thought six more bandits would be no trouble for the ninjas.

He jogged closer, getting a clearer picture of the situation. The ground and surrounding trees were pockmarked with both bullet and grenade holes, with the occasional weird knife stuck in the bark. It looked like the remaining bandits had his jailers pinned down; the outlaws were fanned out and slowly advancing on one tree. As he watched, a black-clad arm flashed briefly in view, and a moment later a grenade exploded against one of the bandits, who fell to his knees, cursing and clutching his bloody side.

Greed figured the two ninjas must be running low on supplies if they hadn’t taken the rest of the bandits out by now. He searched for a suitable place to make an entrance. He considered climbing a tree and dropping down, but that might take too long. He circled around to approach from the side as he considered his options, his eye falling on the reasonably sized patch of flames encroaching on the ninja’s cover. Perfect.

He saw one of the bandits prepare what might be a grenade of their own, something heavy and military grade. Oh no they didn’t, these ninjas were _Greed’s_. As the bandit lobbed the grenade, aimed just to the side of the tree, Greed stepped through the flames, coat billowing in the heat, and caught it one-handed.

He smiled maliciously as he strode forward, clenching the grenade out in front, keeping his chest between it and the besieged tree. His grin widened in mirth as the bandits just stood, too stunned to even continue shooting, until the grenade detonated.

Shrapnel slammed against his shield and sliced through his unguarded face, half blinding him, but leaving him with vision enough to savor the sight of those outlaws that were able to move scrambling away in panic, the blast having left another two laid out motionless on the ground. He rolled his neck as his face regenerated; maybe he should have shielded that, but then the fleeing bandits wouldn’t be able to see his expression of leisurely, detached interest as he continued his approach.

Movement in his periphery caught his attention, and he turned his head to see the girl, knife clenched in her teeth, throwing a few others one-handed with deadly accuracy. Behind him Greed could see the old man remaining in the shadow of the tree, launching a few more knives at a distance. Odd he wasn’t joining the battle proper, maybe he was injured.

“<Young Lord! You made it!>” The girl now held the knife formerly between her teeth, shouting something back at Greed in her native language as she closed in on one of the last living bandits. By now he recognized the name she and the old man often used for the brat sharing his body, if nothing else. He chuckled; they must think it was the other guy in charge. Ah well, they’d figure it out soon enough.

Greed watched appreciatively as she closed in on another bandit with deadly efficiency, making short work of the fleeing man. He let out a low whistle. If she was this good one-armed, with two she must be a _beast_.

The man he was chasing turned to limp backwards instead, desperately firing his weapon as Greed closed the distance in a few strides and detached the man’s gun hand with a quick upward swipe. Then the girl was there, plunging her diamond-shaped knife into the man’s chest.

She turned to Greed, face shining with relief under a mask of blood. “<Young Lord! We were so->” She cut off, probably realizing the smug expression on Greed’s face did not in fact belong to her prince. She stumbled back a step. “You-!“

Greed leaned forward, getting close to her face. “Me.”

He was about to follow up with a mocking comment when the glint of something caught his attention in the trees. He jerked forward, shoving his body between the bullets and the girl even as he heard the old man shout a warning. Her reflexes must be really out of whack or something, Greed had to push her into a crouch as he stooped over, endeavoring to block as much of her body as possible. They just had to wait, the bandit would run out of bullets soon-

Abruptly the firing stopped, the outlaw letting out a very short scream before falling silent. Greed turned to peer into the shadows, but Lan Fan immediately pushed to her feet, calling out to her grandfather as she made her way towards where the shooter had stood. Looked like she was limping too. Man, mortals got beat up so easily.

Greed surveyed the silent battlefield, and, seeing no other sign of life or movement, sauntered over to see how his two captors were doing. Looked like the old man somehow made his way over to ambush the bandit even with a hastily bandaged gunshot wound to the leg, kudos to him. From what he could see Lan Fan had no (new) obvious injuries, that was good. At least they were still both in reasonable condition.

As he got close Greed smirked as the old man did a hard double-take. Looked like the girl wasn’t the only person to mistake his identity. Lan Fan paused in her first aid attempts and said something in their foreign language to the old man, something that sounded like a statement and then a question. They both turned to stare at the homunculus.

“Why do it,” the old man said bluntly, “why help us?”

Greed shrugged. “Why not?”

“That is not a good answer.”

“Sorry to disappoint, pops.” He put his hands in his coat pockets. “Well, it looks like you guys are doing all right, so now if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go for a walk.” He turned back to the forest.

The old man had some angry words for that. “Running off again, are you!” Lan Fan looked like she was deciding whether to try to stop Greed from leaving.

“Oh I wouldn’t call it running. Don’t worry your little heads, I’m sure you’ll catch up soon enough. It’s just been so long since I’ve stretched my legs,” Greed called back over his shoulder. “And besides, I _doubt_ you could stop me anyway.”

“Monster, wait-!” Seemed Lan Fan decided to speak her piece.

Greed opted not to turn, nonchalantly waving as he continued into the trees.

The two retainers watched him go; it was true, neither were in any shape to apprehend the homunculus. After a moment Fu spoke, softly voicing what they both were thinking as Greed disappeared into the darkness. “That’s not the way to Central.”

~~~

Greed strolled through the woods, enjoying the pleasant night air and his first extended taste of freedom since the first time the brat had fallen asleep. This truly was the best night of his life. He figured he had a couple more hours before the kid woke up and reinstated control, plenty of time to enjoy the moonlit scenery.

He found a low grassy hill and stood at the top for a while, the light breeze occasionally rippling his coat. As it turned out, peacefulness could be just as enjoyable as mayhem, who knew? Though, walking along with a small bubbling stream, he felt a strange desire for company, so strong he nearly tried to wake the other person sharing his mindspace to have someone to talk to. He paused in mild confusion, where was this feeling coming from? He’d been alone before, no problem, right? Right?

Thinking about that brought an inexplicable sense of unease, so he banished the thoughts from his mind, focusing instead on his tranquil surroundings. The waxing, uh, moon, yeah that was the word, was high overhead, giving Greed something to stare at and nearly trip over his own feet watching as he walked along. A sudden shooting star stopped him in his tracks, and he spent a few minutes intently watching the sky to see if any more appeared.

Then there it was again, that nagging urge to metaphorically grab the sleeping brat by the shoulders and demand that he give him attention. Greed kicked at a rock in frustration; this was stupid, the brat kept him locked up from the outside world all day, why did he want to talk to him, that was stupid, Greed had been in silence before, most of the day and night, in fact, those two ninjas were so tight lipped themselves, so why was this different, why was it bothering him so much _now_ ? Was it because there had at least been people _there_ , silent or not? This was dumb, he was Greed, the physical incarnation of avarice, he didn’t need this, why the hell was he feeling lo- lonel-

He nearly stumbled again, doing the mental equivalent of choking on a word. He shook himself and forcibly shoved the feeling away; he probably didn’t have much time left, he wanted to enjoy it. Maybe those stupid feelings would go away on their own anyway.

He could see a slight brightness toward one horizon, sunrise must be approaching. He looked around for a decent tree, figuring he could see how much of the sunrise he could watch before the kid unseated him. Maybe give the brat a bit of a surprise to find himself in a tree, although Greed wouldn’t be shocked if the kid had slept in one before. Dude could sleep anywhere.

Finding a suitably tall specimen, Greed made his way as high as he could get without worrying about the branches breaking under him. Settling in on his perch, he faced towards the brightening glow on the horizon and waited for morning, whatever that may bring.

~~~

Ling rose carefully back to consciousness, coming out of a fitful sleep; not that he’d gotten a decent rest since he’d started playing host to thousands of restless souls and one annoying sin. He reinstated his will and displaced said sin from control of his body; at least that was still relatively easy, the homunculus hadn’t even put up much of a fight this morning.

As Ling grabbed back control, he was abruptly able to see out of his already-open eyes; he was still getting used to that weird feeling. And he was… up in a tree?? He hurriedly reached out to feel the dragon’s pulse, searching for a sign of his retainers. No luck, had the homunculus managed to somehow give them the slip? Was he smarter than he’d seemed?

Ling surveyed the landscape in the dawn light, looking for any familiar landmarks. He thought he recognized a distant hill, seemed the sin hadn’t gone very far, at least. So where…? He moved to begin climbing down, but noticed something felt odd about his coat. He raised his arm to inspect his sleeve, and in the new rays peeking over the horizon saw it was caked with a sticky mass of-

A bolt of realization slammed through him; this was _blood_ . He turned inward, shoving aside the mental walls he’d put up to keep the sin isolated. He loomed his mental projection over the homunculus’s, face taut with rage. “Monster! What. Did. You. _DO!_ ”

The sins’s face looked taken aback. **_I, uh, climbed a tree?_ **

“Don’t play dumb, Monster! Where are Lan Fan and Fu!?”

_**Oh that, they’ll catch up soon, probably, I don’t see why you’re upset-** _

“LIAR!”

Ling grabbed the fanged face and brought it to the forefront of his mind, forcing it to see out of his eyes. “EXPLAIN THIS,” Ling nearly screamed, holding up his own blood-soaked arms in clear view in the morning light. This wasn’t happening this couldn’t be happening, his worst fear, since getting into this mess, waking up alone with blood on his hands, this couldn’t be happening- “I’ll ask one more time, what did you do to MY RETAINERS?!” His furious shout sent birds fleeing from the nearby trees.

Greed was out of his depth; it admittedly hadn’t occurred to him just how bad this whole situation would look. He rankled a bit at the accusations though, even in the kid’s death grip. **_Hey, I don’t lie! These bandits attacked us last night, and after we fought them off, I went on ahead!_ **

Ling tightened his grip, squeezing at the sin’s being. “Like they would just let you go! What happened, did you lure them close before striking like the serpent you are? Or maybe there were bandits, like you said, but you let them do the hard work, and finished them off once they were too weak to fight back? That’s the only way you’d be able to beat them, isn’t it?” He brought his face closer to the sin’s, trying to scare him, make him afraid, because if he was right, if his loyal guards, who he owed his life a thousand times over, if they were gone… If this _thing_ had taken the people he cared about from him, he wanted to Make. It. Pay.

Greed twisted in the kid’s grip, trying to pull away. **_Hey whoa whoa whoa watch it, brat! Just give it some time, you’ll see, they’ll show up! Just- let your grip off a little- they’re fine, I swear! Have I ever lied to you before?_ ** He felt the whole situation spiraling rapidly out of control; sure, the brat was starting to seriously injure the core of his very consciousness, but that wasn’t what had him shrinking away.

The kid’s control on his emotions must be slipping badly, because Greed could feel exactly what he was feeling, a horrid, empty, soul-wrenching _grief_ , over things lost forever, never to be regained, over the sudden, bleak _void_ caused by the vacancy of something precious, something essential, _gone._ And he did not like it one bit. He’d tried to reassure the kid, tried to get him to believe his words, hoped desperately that maybe now the two guards would show up, anything, _anything_ that would stop these feelings…

Greed gathered his will in a great push, managing to break free of the kid’s vengeful grip. Before his host could grab him again, the sin fled into the depths of his souls, putting the thousands of tormented voices between him and those awful, awful feelings. Fortunately, the swirling tempest muted the prince’s anguish, but even so Greed buried himself deeper, hoping the kid wouldn’t be able to come in after and bring his pain with him.  

Ling sat in the tree, breathing heavily, arms falling limp at his sides once the homunculus slipped away. He cursed quietly to himself, running through every swear he knew in every language he could think of, tears starting to spill down his cheeks. Were they really gone… No, he couldn’t believe that, he couldn’t give up on them so easily, whether the sin was telling the truth or not, his loyal guards might still be alive.

He took a shaky breath to try calm his roiling grief, feeling his heart beat in time with the pulse of life through the Earth, reaching out as far as he could with his senses, hoping against hope…

There! He could feel them! Their familiar chi shining like faint beacons in the distance, fast coming closer. Ling rushed to ground level in a barely controlled fall through the tree’s branches, hitting the ground with a tuck and roll into a sprint as he ran towards his missing friends.

~~~

Greed sat in hiding for a while before venturing carefully back to the “front” of his swirling mob of souls, hoping that the kid’s bodyguards had finally caught up and there’d be no more sorrowful nonsense. Or murderous rage, also important. As he got close, he ran up against what seemed like the usual isolating barriers the brat put in his face, that was promising. Greed felt a little weak with relief; it looked like everything was pretty much ok, the kid probably wouldn’t murder him, he wouldn’t have to feel those terrible feelings anymore, and the next night would probably go like every other, with a boring vigil tied to a tree in front of silent watchers. At least he’d gotten one fun night, maybe he’d get another eventually.

Then, to his surprise, he felt the kid stop exerting his will, the barriers falling away. Was it nighttime already? It really hadn’t felt long enough. But, Greed wasn’t going to say No to claiming prime mindspace. He moved forward into control, preparing to open his eyes to face another quiet night in lame company.

Immediately it became clear that this was not his usual evening situation. For one thing, it wasn’t evening, and Greed sat blinking owlishly in the first bright sunlight he’d ever encountered. So, the kid was sleeping in the daytime now, was that it? Or was it, as Greed next became aware of his limbs, not in their usual positions stretched to uncomfortable angles. Instead, his legs were in what could be considered a normal sitting position, his arms folded in his lab. And yes, his back was against a tree, but he couldn’t sense the familiar bounds that usually tied his torso immobile. In fact, the only rope he could see were some loops around his wrists and ankles, barely cursory restraints.

He next realized with a start that the two ninjas were there, which would be as per usual, but they were _closer_ now, sitting in, not a relaxed way, for sure, but in a much less aggressive and “battle-ready” pose. And to add a cherry on top to this sundae of surprises, he abruptly became aware that the brat was not in fact asleep in his little mental corner he usually went to, but was very much awake, regarding him with some unreadable expression in their shared mindscape.

The old man shifted, drawing Greed’s confused gaze. After seeing he’d gotten the homunculus’s attention, he spoke.

“All right, Monster. Let’s talk.”

“Huh?”


	5. Self Examination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ling and co. have a little discussion with the voice in Ling's head.

Greed looked between the three impassive faces staring at him. They wanted to talk? To  _ him? _ And why now? Hadn’t he just run off again and made the kid think his guards were dead? And wasn’t he a monster? So why did they  _ want _ to talk to him?

He struggled to wipe the baffled expression off his face, trying to get back some semblance of his usual smugness. When he’d wrestled his face into some narrower eyes and a smirk, he set forth a well-thought-out reply. “You know, I  _ do _ have a name, as I’ve mentioned. It’s Greed. My name is still Greed. And what happened here, you guys run out of rope?” He lifted his loosely bound hands.

The other three remained unamused, staring in silence for just long enough for Greed to start wondering if they were actually going to talk to him. Then the old man spoke again.

“What is it you want, Monster?”

This was, of course, probably a bad thing to ask someone who was the incarnation of avarice itself. “Well,” Greed chuckled, “What  _ don’t  _ I want? I’m Greed, I want everything! Money, women, power, status, fame, all the finer things in life!” He was on a roll now, rattling off his spiel as if he’d practiced it a million times. “I want the whole world! My avarice knows no bounds-“

“What are your goals, Monster?” The old man cut him off. How rude. Still not using his name, either.

“It’s  _ Greed _ , and weren’t you listening? My  _ goal _ is to get all the money, all the power-“

“No, what are your goals  _ right now _ ,” the old man interrupted again with forced calm.

“…I don’t follow.”

Off to the side in his mindscape, the kid made an impatient noise and moved forward to push Greed out of the way.  **_Hey hey c’mon!_ **

“This is so they-“ the brat pointed his chin at his two guards “-can hear what I say as well.” He braced a mental hand against Greed’s face, keeping him at arm’s length despite the sin’s struggles. Keeping his gaze locked on the disgruntled homunculus, the brat started on his piece of what Greed was rapidly beginning to suspect was in fact an interrogation.

“For the past five days you’ve been fighting against me tooth and nail, threatened to kill my retainers the first time you tried to escape, and yet after all of that, after being kept tied up as a prisoner night after night, you still did not make an attempt on their lives when the opportunity presented itself, possibly the best opportunity you’ll ever get. Not only this, but you also  _ helped  _ them. So, why? Are you not still loyal to the homunculus calling himself Father?”

He stepped back, letting a grumbling Greed back into control of his body for his response.

“Of course I’m still loyal to Father, he created me after all, so I owe him big time.”

“Then why not try to kill us?” The old man spoke again.

“Like you guys could hurt him. Last I was ordered was just to remove the invaders from Father’s house, not ‘kill all his enemies’ or anything. I doubt he’s too concerned with a few extra humans running around anyway.” He gave a nonchalant shrug.

“So you don’t do anything unless your father orders it?”

“Eh, I guess you could say that.”

The brat pushed him out of the way again over his muffled protests, hijacking his mouth to exchange a flurry of Xingese with his ninjas.

“So then why didn’t you try to head back to your master last night?” The kid switched to English, moving back to let Greed answer.

Greed zipped back into position.  “I figure I’ll get back there eventually,” Greed shrugged. “And who’s to say I wasn’t trying to go back?”

“You were going the wrong direction,” Gramps said flatly.

“No I wasn’t!”

“…What direction is North?”

“That’s easy,” he scoffed, “It’s that way!” he said, pointing almost due East.

“…And which way is Central?”

“That way, of course!” Greed jerked his thumb to the South.

Lan Fan was squinting at him for some reason, and Grandpa let out a long breath from his nose.

“Very well, if you say so,” the old man finally said.

“I do say so!”

“But that does not explain why you aren’t rushing back to your creator’s side. Is he so lax as to let his servants roam the countryside freely?”

“Eh he’ll probably only need me around as his ‘big plan’ gets closer to its end anyway.”

“And when is that?”

When  _ was _ that? Father didn’t seem to have given him a personal calendar, maybe he’d planned to give him that information later. He did have some sense that the date was a little way off. Probably.

“Tch, I’m not gonna tell.”

“Fine then. What are…” Gramps trailed off, turning to Lan Fan. The girl was certainly acting odd, moving back and forth while staring intently at Greed’s face. He looked back blankly as she leaned forward, never blinking in her scrutiny, before she jerked backwards with a Xingese exclamation.

Immediately the brat pushed his way into control again, shouting something that sounded like “Nanny.” Greed watched bemusedly as the kid and his retainers engaged in increasingly frantic conversation, with the kid at one point peeling back his eyelids while his retainers appeared to inspect his face.

**_Uhhhh do I want to know?_ **

His host ignored him, slumping forward dejectedly at his ninjas’ comments. Finally he mumbled, “I thought human homunculi didn’t have red eyes.”

**_Maybe? There’re other human homunculi? And how are they just Now noticing my eyes, do you keep them closed all day or something?_ **

“Leave my expression out of this!”

**_Whoa ok, I guess you’re sensitive about that huh-_ **

“Anyway, unless there’s any  _ other _ changes you’ve made to my body that you forgot to mention-“

**_Hey, you never let me-_ **

“-let me get this straight. You’re fine not going back to Central immediately, and you don’t go out of your way to kill humans unless you’ve been ordered to?”

“Yeah sure, you could put it that way. You sound skeptical.”

The old man spoke up. “Forgive us, your philosophy hasn’t been shared by any of your other siblings we’ve run into.”

“What, like my big ugly green brother?”

“Yes, they were fond of trying to kill us at every opportunity. Had to be ordered  _ not _ to kill us.”

“Well they sound like a real big stick in the mud.”

The kid took back control. “They really are. And if you’re sure you’re not like them, we have a proposal for you. If our goals were to align, would you be willing to work with us?” He stepped back again.

Greed tilted his head slightly, intrigued now. “I don’t see why not. But I think you’ve made it pretty clear your goals aren’t mine. Also, I  _ would _ like to be able to use my own body, but unless you’re willing to fully relinquish your claim I doubt we’ll be able to reach an agreement,” he side-eyed the glaring prince.

The brat casually swept him out of the way again. “I certainly hope you’ll reconsider, because I think you might benefit from working with us. We  _ both _ might be able to get what we want.”

Greed raised a skeptical “eyebrow.”

The kid steepled his fingers under his chin as he continued. “Back when you were in your master’s lair, you were fighting with Edward Elric, he’s the short alchemist. After I took back control of my body, he and I both escaped from that place, and last I saw he was still free. If you were to say, find him and bring him back to your father, that would raise your esteem in his eyes, correct?”

Greed frowned, thinking. That seemed awfully skewed in his favor, so he guessed there was more to the picture. And the kid hadn’t mentioned anything about who’d be doing the walking either.

**_So what’s in it for you?_ **

“We also want to find Ed. He has information we want. Possibly even,” the kid fixed his gaze on Greed, “the secrets of how to separate us.”

Greed stared for a moment, taken aback. Why did the kid want that, hadn’t he made a very big deal about trying to claim Greed’s powers for his own? “So what happened, my power too troublesome for you to handle?” he teased when the kid gave him control of his face again.

The brat sighed and swatted him out of the way again. “No, just  _ you _ . Of course, if at all possible, I will be  _ keeping _ as much of your power as I can, but you would be free to do as you will and return to your father. I have no doubt he could restore whatever would be missing. But you would have a body you could unconditionally control, and a chance to capture one of your master’s precious ‘sacrifices.’”

Greed sat stewing for a bit, reluctant to have any part of any plan that involved giving up anything of his. But the brat was right, having a body that he didn’t need to compete with a bothersome human over was sounding pretty good, especially since recent events had shown a head on head battle would likely end in his certain defeat and/or destruction. Also, he  _ was _ eager for a rematch with the blond kid, he’d been an entertaining adversary. And something about the word “sacrifice” did resonate with him; he had a feeling those were very important to Father somehow.

“I want to be in control during the day  _ and _ night.”

All three of his interrogators blinked at his sudden declaration. The two ninjas immediately progressed to anger. “You dare make demands-“

The kid shouldered back into control and held up a hand, calming the ninjas with something in Xingese. He then turned his attention back to Greed, hints of both exasperation and amusement on his face. “So our proposal is agreeable to you, but of course you want more.”

**_What can I say, I can’t help it._ **

“How about this: I won’t seal you off from the outside world at all times while I’m in control, and while I’m sleeping, we won’t tie you up. And if you can prove you can  _ behave, _ I might consider allowing you to walk freely at night, with some stipulations on direction and prompt returns to camp, of course.”

Greed tried to cross his arms but found the bound wrists made it difficult. “I want to be in control when it’s daytime.  _ And _ I want them to actually talk to me.” He indicated the glowering guards.

The kid smirked. “Well, that’s up to them. And I will  _ consider _ letting you have some more control if you can demonstrate good behavior-“

**_Daytime._ **

The kid sighed again, and with the air of a parent humoring a whiny child continued, “-if you can demonstrate good behavior, I  _ might _ let you have more control in the daytime as well.” He shot down the beginnings of the ninjas’ protests with a glance. “Happy?”

**_No, but since I can’t get everything I want, do I have much of a choice in the matter?_ ** Greed hung back a bit to give his sulky response.

“No you do not. Well then!” The brat’s tone was suddenly cheerful. “If these are acceptable terms, let’s finalize our agreement. Do you, the entity known as Greed, agree to cooperate with my retainers and I in our search for the Fullmetal Alchemist, and agree to not hinder our search in any way, including but not limited to by trying to escape or injure my retainers or myself? And in return, I, Ling Yao, Twelfth Son of the Golden Emperor, will agree to allow you to perceive the outside world, and, pending your continued cooperation, agree to let you have more control over my body,  _ including _ the possibility of using it during the daytime. Do you accept?” He stepped aside and waited expectantly for Greed’s answer.

“Wait I thought you wanted to find the blond kid, not the guy in the suit of armor?”

_ The blond kid Is the Fullmetal Alchemist. The guy in the armor is his younger brother. _

“…Huh. All right then, yes I accept. So now-“

“Excellent!” The brat shoved the disgruntled homunculus aside again. “I’m so glad we were able to reach an agreement.” He held out his arms and his retainers sprang forward to remove the ropes.

Greed watched the proceedings with some trepidation, but it looked like the kid was planning to honor their treaty and not throw him back into the Boring Zone. Brat also seemed to be carefully ignoring him as he and his bodyguards grabbed their things (were their bags larger now than when he’d last seen?) and began chatting in their foreign language.

Yeah Ok, fine, just pretend Greed wasn’t there, no worries. Although, he supposed at least now he could  _ see _ them ignoring him, a serious upgrade from the brat’s handcrafted No Fun Allowed Jail. He settled into a sort of over-the-shoulder position behind the kid’s consciousness; maybe later he’d try some conversation, but for now he was going to let the new sights and sounds of bright daytime wash over him.

Ling sensed the homunculus take up his position, and though he tensed for any sort of attack, it appeared the sin was keeping to his word. He let out a surreptitious sigh of relief; maybe their plans would work out.

~~~

**Earlier That Day**

"So not only did he fail to make a decent effort to escape, but he explicitly aided you in your fight?"

"Yes, Young Lord. I don't understand it either."

"And he didn't say anything about why he did it?"

"No, but I think he was being annoyingly vague on purpose."

"If this were any other homunculus we've dealt with, I'd say this was some sort of nefarious ploy, but from what you've said I don't think this one is capable of subtlety."

"What are you thinking, my lord?"

"I'm thinking there's a possibility he's not as loyal to 'Father' as the others. Or he doesn't hate and abhor humans as much. Either one of those we might be able to work with."

"Work with? What are you talking about?"

Ling hesitated for a moment, then relented. Better to put all his cards on the table now. "I'm losing this battle." He waved down their sudden alarm. "I'm still holding my own, for now, but I can feel myself slipping, and I'm not getting any better. Especially not with the kind of sleep I'm getting." Ling rubbed a hand over his face. "You've seen for yourselves the condition I'm in, and if he continues to fight against me my every waking moment he will, eventually, win. And I'm not sure I can come back from that." His retainers regarded him in somber silence. "I... I couldn't even wake up when you needed my help." He clenched a fist. "Something needs to change. We may need to consider trying to get the Elrics to help. But even then, especially if we're traveling back towards the center of Amestris, we will need his cooperation."

Lan Fan still looked stricken, while Fu didn’t look convinced. "What makes you think he'll help you,” he challenged. “If he's winning, he's just going to keep fighting! We need to get rid of him!"

"I don't think he does know. He hasn't yet been able to break free once I lock him up, and after earlier this morning he should know I can kill him if I wanted to."

Fu sat up straighter. " _ Can _ you kill him?"

Ling put a hand over his face again. “Fu, you realize he  _ did _ save your lives?”

“Something that wouldn’t have been necessary if he hadn’t taken over  _ your _ body,” his retainer scoffed. Lan Fan seemed to waver slightly, then nodded in agreement with Fu.

“So, can you kill him?”

Ling sighed. "I think so. But again, I will only try that again as a last resort; I'm still not sure if killing him will destroy his stone or not. And now we might have other options. See, if he still thinks I'm standing strong, and he knows I can destroy him if I put my mind to it, he should have plenty of incentive to come to an agreement. And if we can get his cooperation,  _ all _ our lives will get easier. I'll regain my strength, we won't have to worry about him escaping, and-” a hint of desperation slipped into his voice “-we can all get more sleep. And if we can get to the Elrics, hopefully they should be able to take care of our problem."

Fu frowned. "I still have several questions, Young Lord." At Ling's nod he continued, "Say the alchemists can't, or won't, help us, then what? We're back in the heart of enemy territory. And what makes you so sure this homunculus will go along with your plan and not turn on us when it suits him?"

"The evidence does point to him having some sort of honor code. And he clearly went out of his way to make sure you two stayed alive; I'm not saying he  _ can't _ have an ulterior motive behind that, but something tells me he'd be willing to go along, especially if it gets him out of the 'boredom' you say he's always complaining about. And if the Elrics can't help us?" Deviousness blossomed across his face. "I have a backup plan. The sin I was given might play into our favor here. Who's to say that someone claiming to be the greediest person alive wouldn't want some share in the emperorship of a country?"

His retainers stared, dumbfounded.

"Hey, hear me out! If we can weaken his loyalty to his creator, which seems to be the only thing pulling him back towards Central in the first place, then he may be willing to go along with us completely! What self-respecting incarnation of greed would say no to the riches of an entire country? And the more willing he is to join us, the better I can control him. If he decides to betray me down the road, well, we've already established who would win that fight. But of course," he placated, "that's only if our other options don't work out. The primary goal will still be to get him out of my body completely. Maybe Ed can whip him up a nice suit of armor to live in.”

“Oh right," he brightened, "I have another idea to get him to cooperate, a carrot to dangle. If he's still loyal enough to his master, we can convince him that capturing Edward Elric is in his best interests as well; he was fighting him before I took over after all."

"But weren't the Elric brothers let go on purpose?"

"Greed doesn't know that," Ling replied with a touch of sly glee.

"Ah of course, Young Lord.

~~~

After a brief discussion of the best place to start in their search for the Elrics, Ling and his retainers set off back towards Central, despite misgivings. Ling was somewhat relieved the homunculus hadn’t tried to offer his opinion, but that could also be because he hadn’t been able to understand a word being said. Ling felt it was in their best interests to keep using Xingese, so if the sin did eventually go on his merry way back towards his creator he would have as little information about them as possible.

As Ling continued walking, he began to notice something different (aside from the casually inquisitive homunculus literally watching his every move). The dull, persistent pressure that had been a fixture in the back of his mind for the last week was gone. And with it most of the tension that he suspected had been draining his energy like a leech. He was almost feeling relaxed by comparison. So he'd been right, getting the sin to cooperate was helping his fatigue immensely; he might even be able to get a good night's sleep soon...

Abruptly he noticed his feet were no longer following the woodland path, and his face was now turned upwards to a tree branch where a bird was perched, singing. He mentally scrabbled against what he realized must be the homunculus's control as he attempted to wrangle his limbs again. - _ Hey get off-!  _ That sneak, was he so keen to renege on their agreement? What was he doing, was he... whistling?

Ling finally pried the offending sin from the driver’s seat and was about to start in on an outraged tirade when the songbird began chirping again, its melody seeming to complement the one Greed had just spouted off. Could the homunculus talk to birds??

“Young Lord, is everything all right?” Lan Fan’s anxious face appeared at his shoulder, Fu not far behind, regarding him with suspicion.

“Yes I’m fine, just a minor diversion, nothing to worry about.”  _ Hey what’s the big idea? _ He turned inward to confront the sin staring unapologetically back behind his eyes.

**_You said I could have control during the daytime._ **

_ I said if you “behaved well” I Might consider it, not that you can just grab control whenever! _

The disembodied face somehow managed to shrug without any visible shoulders.  **_Not my fault you made it easy._ **

Ling pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t want to banish the homunculus to his subconscious again so soon after reaching an agreement, but clearly he’d been optimistic about how grabby Greed would be. Which in hindsight had been rather stupid.

_ Ok let’s establish some ground rules here. You are not to take control unless I allow it, and the next time you do so without asking I will shut you off from the outside world again. _

**_I don’t see what the big deal is, it’s my body too._ **

Ling took a long, calming breath. He needed his cooperation, he needed his cooperation…  _ Look, M- Look, Greed, in order for this to work, we are going to need to respect each other’s space. I’m letting you see the outside world and not walling you away, but you need to  _ -keep your paws to yourself-  _ respect that this is My body first and foremost, and not infringe on my sovereignty. Especially when I’m walking. Do you understand? _

**_…So when you’re not using your legs I can have them?_ ** __

Ling suppressed a scream with difficulty. He could practically feel his own “boundaries are for other people” attitude coming back to bite him in the ass; of  _ course _ the concept of wanting things made sentient had some interesting ideas about ownership. Ed would certainly laugh if he could see him now. And then get stabbed by Lan Fan, probably. Ah, hot-headed teens.

Ok, time to try a different avenue.  _ Listen, Greed, letting you ride shotgun is a Privilege, one that I will not hesitate to revoke if I can’t go ten feet without worrying about you trying to steal my spot. Therefore, kindly resist the temptation, and we’ll Both be happier. _

**_Hmph, fine._ **

Ling turned his attention outwards again, belatedly realizing he’d been standing there silently while his retainers looked on with concern. He briefly wondered which was weirder for them, hearing half of a conversation or hearing none of it.  __

“Ok everything’s good, we were just having a little chat about boundaries.”

“<Young Lord, I still maintain this is a bad idea.>” Fu, unsurprisingly, didn’t look happy.

“<I as well, Young Lord.>”

“<I know, and you are probably right, but this is still our best bad option.>” Ling had a feeling this conversation would be rehashed often in the future.

**_Now what are you talking about?_ **

_ So you can talk to birds or something?  _ Ling artfully deflected Greed’s question with the finesse learned from a lifetime in Xing’s high courts.

**_Oh that, I just know what tune to play to get them to respond back. Pretty neat, huh?_ **

_ How did you learn how to do that? _

**_Father gave me the knowledge when he created me, of course._ **

_ Seems like a strange thing to give one of his pawns. _

The homunculus paused for a brief instant before answering.  **_Of course you don’t understand the inner workings of his mind, human. He gave me this knowledge, where else would it have come from?_ **

_ If you say so. _

They continued their journey mostly in silence, with Ling ignoring the occasional nudge from the sin as he attempted to turn Ling’s head towards something particularly interesting. 

He suppressed a sigh, trying to ignore just how strange his situation had become. This was gonna be a long trip.

~~~

Ling was certainly looking forwards to their next nightly stopover, it was looking like he’d be able to get his first good night’s rest since before he helped capture Gluttony. Things might be looking marginally up after his previous crushing struggles, even if they couldn’t immediately head back to Xing. The weather was even better. The sun was so nice and warm...

"Young Lord!"

Lan Fan and Fu appeared at his side, arresting his fall before he could plunge face first into the leaf litter. What, had he nearly fallen asleep while walking? Had the constant stress been the only thing keeping him upright before?

"<Young Lord, was it the monster?>" Lan Fan asked angrily.

Ling waved them off once he got his feet under him again. "<No, no, he actually behaved himself this time. I'm just... very tired.>"

Fu dropped his voice. "<Young Lord, are you sure the monster isn't affecting your mind?>"

"<Yes I'm sure, Fu, this is just what happens when I don't really sleep for over a week.>"

"<Should we find a place to set up camp soon, so you can rest?>"

"<That might be for the best.>"

At Ling's nod Lan Fan darted out through the trees to scout a suitable campsite. Ling for his part turned to the homunculus watching him with what he thought might be a hint of amusement.

_ I see you managed to resist the temptation to steal my body back; good job keeping your end of the bargain. _

**_It was my pleasure._ **

_ You just wanted to see me fall on my face, didn't you? _

**_Maybe._ **

Lan Fan's signal came from a little way off in the trees, and Ling and Fu changed trajectory to meet her. Ling could barely keep his eyes open; he realized that without the constant adrenaline from worrying about the unknown supernatural entity in his head keeping him alert, his exhausted body was ready to collapse. He figured getting some pretty concrete proof that, unlike his siblings,  _ this _ homunculus wasn’t hostile might also have something to do with his reduced paranoia. Hopefully the sin wouldn't get clued in to how close to the edge he'd been. Still was.

After a brief discussion it was decided that Greed wouldn't be able to roam freely for this first "night," something the sin had protested until reminded he was still on probation. He still only agreed after Ling said he could sit in the tree rather than on the ground, something the retainers grudgingly agreed to allow.

Ling even graciously offered to let Greed pick his perch; he felt that fostering as much goodwill as possible within the framework of keeping Greed cooperative would be beneficial in the long (and short) run.

After copiously reassuring his retainers this would absolutely, definitely be fine and he really just needed to sleep and trust him, this would all be worth it, no, he wasn’t just too tired to care, of course he was using good judgement, he ceded control to the homunculus, who began climbing his tree of choice under the resentful eyes of Ling's guards.

_ Thank you _ . Ling had one last thing to say before letting sleep claim him.

**_Hmm?_ ** Greed paused in adjusting his coat around his chosen branch.

_ Thank you for protecting my retainers. _

After what might have been a moment of stunned silence, Greed chuckled.  **_Sure thing, kid. I always look out for my possessions. You've got yourself some good ones there. That girl is really something._ **

Ling drowsily agreed as he began to nod off. Greed's next statement brought him back awake, however.

**_Although, now I Know my own greed is greater than yours._ **

_ What makes you say that? _

**_I would never let you share if our situations were reversed._ **

_ Then it’s a good thing I’m the one in charge _ .

Greed leaned back against the tree trunk, smirking as Ling faded into sleep.  **_Knock yourself out, kid._ ** He lounged with his hands behind his head, watching the trees gently stir in the golden sunshine.

~~~

**Earlier**

“Young Lord, I still don’t see why you’re so certain you can get the monster to work with us, or even gain his allegiance.”

“The last Greed apparently left his master, who’s to say this one won’t as well? Another reason to seek out the Elrics; they might be able to offer us insight into why the last one forsook his post. Perhaps we can get history to repeat itself, no?”

“If you think it is worth the effort, Young Lord.”

“I do. But we won’t be relying on it by any means.” Ling took a calming breath. Maybe this was the break they needed, an escape from his spiral. “Now, let’s prepare the stage for our ‘guest.’”

And who knows, maybe this wouldn’t be  _ that _ bad. Maybe. 


End file.
